Can Cyanobacteria be engineered to convert the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide into the valuable chemical isoprene?

In his inaugural lecture Dennis Claessen will explain how he wants to ensure that lecturers have less admin to do.

Professors Jos Raaijmakers (NIOO) and Gilles Van Wezel (IBL) received an STW Perspectief- grant of €3 million from the Dutch Technology Foundation and several supporting companies.

How do plants lure microscopically small 'support teams' into their roots for protection against diseases? And what functions are activated in the microbes and the plants?

‘Working in Leiden is a dream come true.’ Ákos Kovács studied in his birth country Hungary and worked in Germany, Denmark and Groningen. As professor of Microbiome Ecology at IBL, he immediately started working together with his new colleagues to make discoveries about the versatile bacterial species…

The central question of this Vici proposal is to investigate if, and how actinobacteria exploit life without a cell wall.

Soil bacteria can produce a wealth of antibiotics that are new to us, claims Gilles van Wezel, Professor of Molecular Biotechnology at the Institute of Biology Leiden. His research group has developed a method that can rapidly identify and produce these unknown compounds.

Cyanobacteria are promising microorganisms to advance sustainable biotechnology, since they can be genetically engineered to convert carbon dioxide and light energy into valuable product molecules.

In an unpredictable environment bacteria evolve the same strategy as shareholders who try to protect themselves against unpredictable swings in the stock market. Experimental evolution biologist Dr Bertus Beaumont published an article on this discovery on 5 November in the journal Nature.

Edith Schippers, Minister of Health, will be investing six million euros over the coming four years to boost research on new antibiotics. The programme will be set up by several different parties, including the Leiden Centre for Antimicrobial Research.