Social media are playing a key role in calling for resistance to the corona measures. Online, agreements are made about where and when people will gather to protest. The authorities are not always fully aware of what is happening and cannot just infiltrate, whereas civilians can often easily participate…

In March 2019 a new Computer Crime Act took effect in the Netherlands. As a result, Dutch police now have extensive powers to tackle cybercrime. Innocent citizens could be adversely affected if these new powers are not used with restraint, Bart Custers (Head of Research at eLaw - Center for Law and…

For years, the Dutch National Coordinator for Security and Counterterrorism (NCTV) has collected and shared privacy-sensitive information about citizens. Experts say this is in breach of the law.

Insurers determine for themselves whether someone has committed fraud, impose sanctions immediately and hardly ever report it. As a result, police, prosecutors, and criminal courts are side-lined. And policyholders are sometimes left out in the cold. Bart Custers, professor of Law & Data Science at…

Cancer research generates massive amounts of data, but traditional tools often fail to fully harness their potential. How can we unlock this data to provide better treatments for cancer patients? PhD candidate Marina Gorostiola González explored this by using advanced data analysis techniques to guide…

Actin and microtubules form cellular cytoskeletal network, which mediates cell shape, motility and proliferation and are key targets for cancer therapy. Changes in cytoskeletal organization correlate with proliferative capacity and invasiveness of cancer cells. These changes expectedly lead to altered…

Researchers at the Universities of Amsterdam (Uva) and Leiden together with the Netherlands Cancer Institute and Oncode Institute have received a €10,6 million ERC Synergy Grant to develop innovative therapeutic approaches to target glioblastoma. This is a deadly primary brain tumour for which no curing…

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.’…

Insurance companies are registering more and more people for having committed fraud. In principle, it is a good idea to tackle cases of fraud. However, research shows that an increasing number of people are being wrongly included on the fraud list. According to Bart Custers, Professor of Law & Data…

As of 1 November 2021, Bart Willem Schermer has been appointed as Professor of Privacy and Cybercrime at eLaw – Center for Law and Digital Technologies.

Leila Akkari was appointed Special Professor of Cancer-immune interactions at the Leiden Institute of Chemistry (LIC) on 15 December. Akkari is a researcher at the Netherlands Cancer Institute (NKI), where she studies the relationship between cancer cells and the immune system, with a particular focus…

Bart Schuurman is a research Fellow at the International Centre for Counterterrorism (ICCT) and at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs (ISGA) in The Hague. He was interviewed by Abigail Esman of the Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) about his new book 'Becoming A European Homegrown Jihadist'.…

On 22 December 2018, Dr. Bart Custers, Associate Professor and Head of Research at eLaw, Center for Law and Digital technologies, presented research results of the e-SIDES project at the Artificial Intelligence and Cloud Computing Conference (AICCC 2018) in Tokyo, Japan. His presentation dealt with…

On October 23rd, dr. Bart Custers, associate professor and head of research of eLaw, the Center for Law and Digital Technologies at Leiden Universitty, delivers a keynote address on the big data and law at the International Conference on Big Data Research (ICBDR 2017) in Osaka, Japan

On May 16th 2018, the Law Faculty of Basel University organised a workshop on Law & Robots, titled Predictive Analytics bei Versicherungen und in der Arbeitswelt: Diskriminierung durch Algorithmen? (Predictive Analytics in Insurance and Labor: Discrimination by Algorithms?). At this event, dr. Bart…

Companies like Facebook and Google make billions of dollars by selling or using our personal data. The data could be used by many different entities for many different reasons: from universities for research, to brands for creating targeted ads. But rather than just giving their data away to these companies…

On January 5th 2018, dr. Bart Custers, associate professor and head of research of eLaw, the Center for Law and Digital Technologies at Leiden University, will give a conference lecture on the (monetary) value of personal data at the International Conference on Big Data and Smart Computing (ICBDSC 2018)…

Misleading social media posts are falsely claiming that the Dutch supermarket chain Jumbo uses facial recognition at self-service checkouts. Jumbo denies this, although it has launched trials with AI cameras to combat shoplifting without using facial recognition.

Bart Barendregt explains his new Unesco Chair in Anthropology of Digital Diversity in an interview on the Unesco website.

Hackers have got their hands on data from the Royal Dutch Football Association (KNVB). Lockbit, a collective of cybercriminals, is after the money. What now?

PhD defence

PhD defence

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.

The increasing Technological opportunities of Virtual Reality (VR) increasingly resemble the real world (and more). In Japan VR holidays are very popular and VR porn is emerging.

Media outlets Investico, de Groene Amsterdammer and Trouw reported on the wide-scale collection by the Dutch police of personal data of demonstrators and their family members. Bart Schermer, Professor of Privacy and Cybercrime, commented on the issue.

The more people are vaccinated, the more society can slowly reopen. Technological developments, like the Covid passport and other apps, can play a role in this. Artificial Intelligence could help greatly in developing the vaccine passport and the Covid-19 exposure notification app, Anne Meuwese and…

Bart de Smit has been appointed to the position of Vice Dean of the Faculty of Science for four years, as of 1 January 2019. After Han de Winde stepped down as Vice Dean in September, De Smit already took over his duties ad interim.

This month, it came out that a subdistrict court judge used ChatGPT to formulate a ruling. The judge included some text generated by the popular AI chatbot in his decision. This resulted in a lot of media commotion, raising doubts as to whether using ChatGPT in court is permissible and responsible.

The EU proposal for a regulatory framework on artificial intelligence will not prevent the dangers of cybercrime or the spreading of fake news using ChatGPT. Cyber criminals can use the new technology to write harmful software, phishing mails and fake news.

Pavel Durov, CEO of chat and messaging app Telegram, was arrested in France last week. The Russian tech billionaire flew into Paris by private jet and was arrested on suspicion of cybercrimes. Telegram allegedly facilitates criminal activities such as money laundering. This raises the question of how…

Europe is working full steam towards a digital identity for every EU citizen. And although it might be really useful to be able to hire a car everywhere in the EU with no hassles, Bart Custers, Professor of Law and Data Science at eLaw, the Center for Law and Digital Technologies, sees many loose ends.…

The more people are vaccinated, the more society can slowly reopen. Technological developments, like the Covid passport and other apps, can play a role in this. Artificial Intelligence could help greatly in developing the vaccine passport and the Covid-19 exposure notification app, Anne Meuwese and…

Governments are increasingly cracking down on tech companies like X, Telegram and Clearview that flout the law, with a fine, ban or criminal prosecution. In practice, however, this has little effect. A tougher stance is needed, argues Bart Custers, Professor of Law and Data Science at eLaw – Center…

Here is an interview of Susanna Lindberg made in 2023 by Bart Buseyne and Paul Cruysberghs and published in 2025 in La Deleuziana: « Il va falloir inventer » – Susanna Lindberg en conversation

Bart Schuurman, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Security and Global Affairs in The Hague, has received a Veni grant which will allow him to continue his research into the radicalisation of terrorists for the next three years. ‘In order to better understand terrorists, I will focus on the large…

Using mathematics to help children with bone cancer. It sounds a little strange, but for statistician Marta Fiocco, it's just her job. She gets a substantial grant from KiKa for it. With that money, she is going to study the effect of chemotherapy adjustments.

The Public Prosecutor's Office (OM) and the Netherlands Forensic Institute (NFI) want to use private DNA databases for genealogical research in criminal investigations. The method could be used in serious criminal cases that have stalled and it is already being used in investigations abroad. Whether…

Marta Fiocco, professor at the Mathematical Institute, has received a grant for predicting survival outcome and improving the balance between prognosis and quality of life for soft tissue sarcoma patients (Personalised Sarcoma Care).

This thesis seeks to investigate how cancer-associated mutations affect the pharmacological properties of selected GPCRs—primarily A2AAR and 5-HT2CR—through a combination of ligand binding assays, signaling readouts, kinetic profiling, and cellular functional assays.

A new technique using fluorescent imaging to track the actions of enzymes might aid drug design for new anti-cancer, inflammation and kidney disease treatments. Researchers at the University of York and Leiden University have published these findings in Nature Chemical Biology.

We would like to draw your attention to the following advertisement which was originally disseminated by the Dutch Breast Cancer Foundation, in collaboration with Leiden University

This August, the second edition of the Advanced Summer Programme

Developing a better treatment for patients with head and neck cancer, that is what Binanox, The 2022 iGEM Leiden team, want to achieve. They hope to raise at least 10,000 euros for this cause. Support their crowdfunding campaign today.

Patients with incurable breast cancer remember more information about their treatment if their doctor is more empathetic during consultations. These are the results of research by psychologists from Leiden University in collaboration with Nivel research institute. Publication in Patient Education and…

This thesis investigates how cell shape and collective behavior influence the dynamics and structure of biological tissues, which are crucial for understanding processes like embryonic development, tissue regeneration, and metastasis.

Arco Timmermans is Professor by special appointment Public Affairs at the Institute of Public Administration. On Dutch television programme 'EenVandaag', he discussed the remarkable changes that have been made in a report on lung cancer in and around the Dutch city of Beverwijk that was presented by…

Burnout is on the increase. It is caused by group pressure, being ‘on’ all the time and asking too much of ourselves. Clinical psychologist Bart Verkuil advises lowering our expectations.

Pharmaceutical research should make more use of data science, says Gerard van Westen, postdoctoral fellow at the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR). ‘If we want to have better drugs, we should start with data.’

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…