Striga hermonthica, commonly known as witchweed, infests major cereal crops in Sub-Saharan Africa causing severe yield losses and threatening the livelihood of millions of resource poor farmers.

Researchers from Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) have discovered how malaria parasites escape the immune system of mosquitoes. The so-called QC enzyme changes proteins on the outside of the malaria parasite such that the immune cells are unable to recognise the parasite. As a result, the parasite…

How has early development in R. ocellatus been modified as a result of its parasitic embryonic lifestyle?

Leiden astronomer Anthony Brown is part of Nature’s 10: the ten people who mattered in science in 2018, according to the leading science journal. Working behind the scenes, Brown is the astronomer who coordinated the release of Gaia’s long-awaited bounty of Milky Way data.

Leiden astronomer Anthony Brown had the honour to give the prestigious Spitzer Lectures at Princeton University. In five lectures spread over the beginning of May, he gave an insight into the Gaia Mission. ‘One of the intellectual highlights of the year.’

The 2026 Els Witte Annual Prize in Political Science has been awarded to Kathleen Brown. As a PhD candidate at Leiden University’s Institute of Political Science, she wrote a thesis on sovereign debt politics, risk, and state agency in emerging markets. According to the jury, which presented the prize…

Two researchers from the Institute of Political Science were recently awarded prizes. Claire Vergerio received the Francesco Guicciardini Prize for her book on the historical origins of the primacy of the state in international law ('best book in the historical international relations category'). In…

Astronomers at ASTRON and Leiden University have used the LOFAR radio telescope to discover a 'brown dwarf' – a faint object more massive than Jupiter, but significantly less massive than the Sun. The discovery of the object dubbed Elegast, opens up a new path that uses radio telescopes to discover…

On Tuesday 30 September 2025, PhD candidate Kathleen Brown will defend her dissertation 'Deception, Risk, and Evasion: The Politics of Sovereign Debt in Emerging Markets' in Leiden’s Academy Building. Her research sheds light on the hidden world of sovereign debt politics, revealing how governments…

Schistosomiasis is an acute and chronic disease caused by blood dwelling parasitic trematodes of the genus Schistosoma, and it is classified as the second most socioeconomically devastating parasitic disease, second only to malaria.

Parasitic worms and stomach bacteria suppress immune reactions such as allergic responses. Parasitologist Hermelijn Smits and lung specialist Christian Taube from the LUMC are trying to learn from these micro-organisms.

How humans and rats cohabit the cityscape and what consequences this has for both sides of the conflict?

The infectious diseases malaria and tuberculosis are responsible for 2.1 million deaths every year. Leiden researchers are currently testing a new tuberculosis vaccine.

Promotores: H.A. Udo De Haes, P.M. Brakefield

We developed the bitterling as a unique, well-studied model organism in the area of the evolutionary ecology of brood parasitism. The bitterling-mussel relationship, interspecific mussel host preference, and mussel gill structure are studied in detail, to help understand the developmental adaptation…

Even embryos can become embroiled in an evolutionary arms race with another species. Leiden biologists demonstrate this with larvae of the rosy bitterling that parasitize the gills of freshwater mussels. They published their research on February 19 in PNAS.

Our immune system protects us against disease, but every now and then, something goes wrong: an enemy invades our bodies or our immune system attacks our own cells and we become ill. Doctors and researchers at the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) want to be able to manipulate the immune system…

PhD defence

The first photo of a black hole and measuring anxiety in the brain... From 13 until 22 May we're serving a free slice of science with your pizza.

Health workers have always sought ways to fight disease in vulnerable groups in the population. It is now clear that such research also benefits more prosperous countries. African worm infections and innovative thermometers have shown Leiden researchers how to fight diseases of affluence and keep health…

Promotor: E.F. Smets Co-promotor: J. Geml

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

This thesis explores how bees and hoverflies are distributed across the Dutch landscape and how ecological and landscape factors shape their occurrence.

Arts and leisure, Arts and leisure

Arts and leisure, Arts and leisure

How is it possible that people kill each other? And above all: how is it possible that people who are able to peacefully live with each other at one moment, can kill each other at another one?

Research into research improves the academic system. CWTS studies and evaluates the academic system in various ways. One way is to provide information on the productivity and impact of academics by documenting how many publications they or their universities produce and how often these publications…

Supervisor: S.F. Portegies Zwart Co-Supervisor: A.G.A. Brown

OB associations are loose groups of young, massive stars. They constitute the last stage of the massive starformation process, and the context in which new stars are formed.

A century ago, it was unclear whether the stars in the sky were clustered in groups, or widely spread in the universe.

In an innovative study, Radboudumc and LUMC jointly tested a candidate vaccine based on a genetically weakened malaria parasite. The results of this clinical trial, published in Science Translational Medicine, show that the vaccine is safe and elicits a defense response against a malaria infection.

The solar system was formed approximately 4.56 billion years ago. Despite the numerous theories that have been developed over the years, the formation and evolution of the solar system still remain unclear.

Diverse types of exoplanets such as gas giants on close-in orbits (hot Jupiters) and young massive giants on wide orbits (super Jupiters), with no analogs in the Solar System, pose challenges but also opportunities to our understanding of planet formation and evolution.

This dissertation and the corresponding films and recordings presented here are an effort to distil an approach to performing the orchestral music of Johannes Brahms that is significantly different from what has hitherto been produced in the fields of both Mainstream Orchestral Performance Practice…

Conference

In het Leids Universitair Medisch Centrum wordt gewerkt aan de ontwikkeling van een nieuw malariavaccin dat effectiever is dan de huidige vaccins.

Of the Spinoza Prizes that have been awarded since 1995, 29 have gone to researchers from Leiden University.