LED3 is the combined effort of three excellent institutes of Leiden University. Through joined hands, we are able to give rise to a more effective early drug discovery pipeline. Let us briefly introduce the three institutes.

Not experiments and lab coats, but computers and artificial intelligence: this year's Nobel Prize in Chemistry went to the inventors of the groundbreaking AI model, AlphaFold. This programme accurately predicts protein structures based on their genetic code—a crucial step in understanding biological…

In this thesis, bioorthogonal chemistry is combined with correlative light-electron microscopy to selectively label and study pathogenic intracellular bacteria within the host immune cell.

The Chemistry and LST master’s programmes are both structured on an individual basis and well-embedded in the research at the faculty. Those are the main conclusions of the oral report at the end of the visit of the visitation panel on October 10th.

Leiden chemist Roxanne Kieltyka is part of the 2018 Talented 12 list of the American Chemical Society. That was announced by the journal Chemical & Engineering News on 19 August.

Some examples of AI-research done at Leiden.

Promotor: Prof.dr. E. Bouwman

Performances of solo keyboard repertoire can sound more or less polyphonic depending on the performer’s use of divergence in expression.

A common assumption in chemistry is that the coordination number of a catalyst's surface determines the reactivity of the reaction it catalyses. Strikingly, Leiden chemists have now proven that this is not true for nature’s most simple chemical reaction: the dissociation of hydrogen. The researchers…

In the search for new medicines against diseases such as cancer, a Leiden team has developed a new workflow. This approach combines artificial intelligence (AI) with molecular modelling and is suitable for finding unknown and innovative drug structures, the researchers proved.

Last year, chemists Dennis Wander and Hermen Overkleeft contributed to an important discovery about a widely used cancer drug. Their research has now been recognised as Finalist for the PNAS Cozzarelli Prize in the Biomedical Sciences class.

Quantum hardware comes with a different computing paradigm and new ways to tackle applications. Much effort has to be put into understanding how to leverage this technology to give real-world advantages in areas of interest for industries such as combinatorial optimization or machine learning.

Supramolecular polymers are class of materials that are formed by non-covalent interactions such as hydrogen bonding, π-π interactions, electrostatic interactions and the hydrophobic effect.

It has been a long-standing mystery how complex biological structures emerge from such seemingly uncoordinated building blocks as cells and tissues, in the presence of only minimal environmental guidance.

Can we develop new enzymes and cell factories to upgrade current enzyme cocktails towards complete degradation of biomass?

This research focuses on figurative Byzantine mosaic-floors that have been excavated in the geographical area of the ancient provinces of Palestina and Arabia (current Israel, PA and Jordan) dating to the Late 5th, 6th and early 7th centuries C.E.

On March 27th, 2015 the biannual Dutch Medicinal Chemistry Prize for the best Dutch Ph.D. thesis in the field was awarded to Dr. Dong Guo, a current postdoc researcher in our lab, by the Section of Medicinal Chemistry of the Royal Netherlands Chemical Society.

Tackling key challenges of Chemical Biology and Medicinal Chemistry to aid drug discovery is one of the focus areas of Leiden University. To this end, the Leiden Early Drug Discovery & Development network (LED3) was established by the Leiden Institute of Chemistry (LIC), the Institute of Biology Leiden…

In January 2014, the research project The Promise of Organization hosted a fruitful three-day conference:

There are many complex links in the chain that provides patients with new drugs: from fundamental science, to clinical tests, to production. The entire chain can be found in Leiden. Leiden University, the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and the businesses at the Leiden Bio Science Park (LBSP)…

PhD candidate Dennis Wander searches for the best of both worlds. That is to say: a cancer drug that is effective and also has minimal side effects. To this end, he makes new molecules inspired by two existing medicines. And not without result: ‘We have created a new variant that is very promising.’…

Which molecules go into forming planets? PhD candidate Christian Eistrup and his colleagues have created new models to research this question. Their findings could change our idea of which molecules were forming Jupiter or even Earth.

How are carbohydrates processed by the immune system? Can carbohydrates be used to trigger T-cells against other conjugated antigens? Can they be used as adjuvants?

Leiden based chemistry student and chess grandmaster proposes molecular system for development of artificial leaf

For the third consecutive year, LACDR organized the international symposium on topology, Circuit Topology III, on November 29, 2023. The event aimed to bring together experts from diverse fields, including mathematics, computer science, physics, chemistry, and biomedical sciences, to discuss cutting-edge…

The aim of this thesis is to study cell-cell interactions and the development of an assay to explore and quantify the exchange of membrane compounds.

The project re-examines the role of the Catholic, Protestant and Orthodox missionaries in the cultural and social developments of the Middle East and their interactions with the indigenous communities, from the nineteenth century until today. It seeks to discover and retrace such ‘entangled histories’…

Former Chemistry PhD student Tiddo Mooibroek is one of the 25 nominees for the title New Scientist Science Talent 2017. Nobel prize winner Ben Feringa will announce the winner at the New Scientist Live: Nobelprijs event on June 22, after a rating of the candidates by a jury and a public vote.

Gerard van Westen has been appointed full Professor or Artificial Intelligence and Medicinal Chemistry. This chair has been jointly created by the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR) and the Leiden Institute of Chemistry (LIC) as part of SAILS, the university stimulus program in Artificial…

Researchers of the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) and the Leiden Institute of Chemistry have made an important discovery about the commonly used anti-cancer drug doxorubicin. They have found a way to reduce its side effects without sacrificing the effectiveness of the medication. This is encouraging…

Alumnus Vincent Renken studied Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences in Leiden and is now co-founder of an outdoor escape room company. ‘I asked myself: do you want a standard life or an adventure?’

The European Council and the European Commission have a similar role in agenda setting. Both place issues on the EU agenda. However, these institutions have distinct designs. They have different political attributes (the European Council has considerably more political authority) and information-processing…

Leiden Professor of Molecular astrophysics Ewine van Dishoeck has been awarded an Advanced Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). She has been awarded 2.3 million euros in research funding for the MOLDISK programme. Within this programme, Van Dishoeck wants to connect chemistry and physics in…

With great sadness we share the news that Prof. Harold Linnartz passed away suddenly and unexpectedly on Sunday 31 December 2023. We are all in shock, and our thoughts are with his wife and children, other family, and friends. Harold was at the heart of our institute, as a researcher, as a supervisor,…

Promotor: G.A. van der Marel, Co-promotor: J.D.C. Codée

This thesis aimed to investigate core cross-linked polymeric micelles (CCPMs) and expand their potential for the delivery of hydrophobic drugs and co-factors.

Having a bachelor's, a master's and a PhD in Chemistry, Elena Sánchez López shifted to a more biological field of research for her postdoc. She completed all her studies at the University of Alcala, in Spain, before applying for a LEaDing fellowship at Leiden University, a Marie Sklodowska-Curie Cofund…

Quantum computing is an emerging technology, which holds the potential to simulate complex quantum systems beyond the reach of classical numerical methods.Despite recent formidable advancements in quantum hardware, constructing a quantum computer capable of performing useful calculations remains challenging.In…

Students searched for a student project about internalization and the effects of nanomaterials in freshwater organisms. Open to BSc and MSc students and any timeframe.

The redox-conversion reaction of metal-disulfide and metal-thiolate complexes are important, as they may shed light on electron-transfer reactions that often occur in Nature.

Since May, Assistant professor BioTherapeutics Lu Su works in our faculty. Although she is still young, she already worked in many different fields and co-operated on two publications in big scientific journals. How did she become so successful and what motivates her to keep researching the possibilities…

The organ in the Academy Building is 25 years old. University organist Jan Verschuren and tuner Bert Crama talk about the long history of university organs, improvising with short cortèges and their love for this organ.