Promotores: C.A.J. Knibbe; J.N. van den Anker, Co-promotores: H.P.A. van Dongen; B. van Ramshorst

High throughput microscopy

How can we translate more fundamental discoveries into clinical solutions for patients? From that question, the Oncode Accelerator programme emerged. Professor of Molecular Physiology Mario van der Stelt has been one of the driving forces behind it since its inception. In an interview on the website…

Conference

Promotor: Prof.dr. T. Hankemeier, Co-promotor: R.J. Vreeken

Providing each cancer patient with the right treatment remains a challenge. Oncode Accelerator aims to change this by innovating the way we develop cancer treatments, thus ensuring the patient is at the heart of the process. Leiden University, the LUMC and other partners will implement this new way…

In this thesis, mathematical modeling and simulation was applied as a tool to inform quantitative decision making in oncology drug discovery and development.

How to get involved in sustainability? Read more about four projects that Leiden University helped realise in the past few years.

A therapeutic vaccine against HPV-16 (type 16 human papillomavirus) improves the survival rate in cervical cancer patients. A new study by ISA Pharmaceuticals B.V. (a Leiden-based biotechnology company) and the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) shows that this vaccine produces a more robust response…

In order to be able to develop effective medicine and treatments to prevent or cure autoimmune diseases or cancer we need to understand the mechanisms how they arise and what drives their course.Unravelling the fundamental molecular mechanisms influencing the onset and course of diseases such as allergies,…

The Netherlands X-omics Initiative is a new facility as part of the National Roadmap for Large-Scale Research Infrastructures. It is partly funded by NWO with a total budget of 40 million euro. The project started on September 2018 and will last for ten years.

Chemist Gerjan de Bruin has designed a method of slowing down the degradation process of proteins in cells. This may contribute to new cancer medicines with fewer side-effects. PhD defence on 1 June.

This thesis explored the molecular pharmacological mechanisms of targeting CB2R via investigation of novel drug discovery concepts such as target binding kinetics, allosteric modulation and biased signaling.

Promotor: M. Ubbink, Co-promotor: G. Siegal

Promotor: B. van de Water

Growth hormone profiles are pulsatile and highly variable between individuals, limiting the implementation of mathemathical models to quantify an individual's secretion.

Vitamin A or retinol is essential in embryonic development, the visual cycle and the immune system.

The kidneys play a major role in the elimination of drugs. In children, the exact age-related physiological changes underlying kidney function remain largely unknown.

This thesis describes the design and development of subunit‐selective inhibitors of particular catalytically active subunits of human constitutive proteasomes and immunoproteasomes.

Pectin is a plant cell wall polysaccharide made of mainly D-galacturonic acid (GA) subunits. The potency of the filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger to naturally secrete high amounts of pectinases to degrade pectin has been utilized for the industrial production of pectinases.

Can drug screening for tuberculosis treatment be made more efficient?

Drug induced organ toxicity is the main problem of the drug development and drug usage in the clinic. The liver and kidneys are the most sensitive organs towards drug induced toxicity.

The polypept(o)ide hybrid material attracted more and more attention over the past decade by combining the multifunctional characteristics of polypeptides with the shielding characteristics of polypeptoid-pSar possessing similar properties as a shielding material as polvethylene glycol(PEG). Polysarcosine…

When the immune system attacks cancer, the tumour modifies itself to escape the immune reaction. Researchers at LUMC published on this subject in Nature on 28 June.

Promotores: Prof.dr. C.A.J. Knibbe, Prof.dr. M. Danhof, Prof.dr. K. Allegaert (Leuven)

Source: Biosens Bioelectron, Volume 74, pp. 233-42 (2015)

The current projects of the Molecular Physiology group focus on proteins of the endocannabinoid system, kinases and antibacterial targets. MSc- and BSc-students can contact Jessica van Krimpen-Kraaijenoord to apply for research internships.

Can zebrafish larvae be used as a behavioural model for screening natural products as potential neurotropic drugs?

The Department of Biophysical Structural Chemistry studies how biological systems work at the molecular level through high-resolution structural analysis. Using state-of-the-art techniques in structural biology such as cryo-electron microscopy and X-ray crystallography we gain crucial insights into…

The research in the Biosyn group is focused on the design, synthesis and function of the four major types of biomolecules: nucleic acids, carbohydrates, peptides and lipids and hybrid structures thereof. These biomolecules and their derivatives are used in drug discovery and chemical biology, to develop…

On 18 June, Esmée Driessen defended the thesis 'Government encouragement and facilitation of civic initiatives. On the interpretation of ‘serving government’ in third-generation civic participation'. The doctoral research was supervised by Geerten Boogaard and Willemien den Ouden.

In 2012, the Dutch National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism and the Dutch Probation Service launched a reintegration project for offenders on probation or parole who were (suspected to be) involved in jihadist extremism or terrorism. The initiative's primary goal was to reduce the chance…

N-acylethanolamines (NAEs), which include the endocannabinoid anandamide, represent an important family of signaling lipids in the brain. The lack of chemical probes that modulate NAE biosynthesis in living systems hamper the understanding of the biological role of these lipids.

Can small molecule drugs restore the immune system’s ability to fight tuberculosis by boosting autophagy?

Dementia is a progressive disease, diagnosed at a relatively late stage when intervention may not be effective. Aim of the research is to study scans of brain networks to help discover the early network changes related to dementia. Early diagnosis may benefit effectiveness of future treatment.

Potential drugs that seem promising in the lab, but don’t show any activity in a person: they cost the industry an incredible amount of time and money. That’s why Indira Nederpelt focuses on a more efficient search for new drugs in her PhD, by determining the kinetics of a potential drug earlier on…

EU Cyber Direct – EU Cyber Diplomacy Initiative supports the European Union’s cyber diplomacy and international digital engagements in order to strengthen rules-based order in cyberspace and build cyber resilient societies. To that aim, we conduct research, support capacity building in partner countries,…

Supervisor: Anna Vlachodimou

Shiʿi Islam

How can zebrafish models be used to gain a better understanding of host-pathogen interaction mechanisms and to screen new drugs for infectious disease treatment?

To develop good cancer treatments, we need to know much more about how malignant tumour cells develop. Professor Ewa Snaar-Jagalska looks at not just the effect of medication on isolated cells but also the behaviour of cancer cells in their tissue environment. Inaugural lecture on 11 December.

Leiden biophysicists have found a new possible way to attack cancer cells. They have located ‘sinkholes’ on the cells where receptor proteins disappear from the surface. If a drug could push these proteins towards those areas, it would kill the cancer cell.

Finding structure in disordered proteins and developing drugs for undruggable diseases: it might sound like mission impossible, but pharmacologist Alireza Mashaghi and his team are right on top of it. Their project was awarded by NWO through the Open Competition Domain Science -XS, a competition that…

Key publications of the Cancer Drug Target Discovery group

As leading cause of death worldwide, cancer is responsible for nearly 10 million deaths in 2020 according to World Health Organization (WHO). Cisplatin and its derivatives are commonly used chemotherapy agents for current cancer treatment in the clinics.