How do mycobacteria subvert the defenses of host immune cells?

Promotores: A.H. Meijer, H.P. Spaink

This thesis focuses on the role of chemokine receptors CXCR3 and CCR2 in the inflammatory process and infection control using the zebrafish model.

Autophagy is a fundamental degradative process, maintaining cellular homeostasis and functions in host defense against intracellular pathogens, including mycobacteria and Salmonella.

How do pathogenic mycobacteria alter lipid metabolism in human cells and patients, and which disrupted pathways could be targeted for new antibiotics?

Promotor: Prof.dr. H.P. Spaink, Co-promotor: Prof.dr. A.H. Meijer

The LUMC has a longstanding tradition researching the role of the immune system in infectious diseases, transplantation and auto-immune diseases.

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…

Our research aims to develop drugs that boost the host immune response to better defend us against mycobacteria.

Promotor: Prof.dr. J.N. Kok

The effective treatment of tuberculosis (TB) remains a major challenge to global health.

Promotor: Prof.dr. H.P. Spaink, Co-promotor: Dr. M. van der Zee

Promotores: Prof.dr. H.P. Spaink & Prof.dr. P.C.W. Hogendoorn, Co-promotor: Dr. M.J.M. Schaaf

Worldwide resurgence of pertussis necessitates the need for improvement of pertussis vaccines and vaccination strategies.

The function of TLRs in innate immunity has aroused worldwide attention soon after its discovery. Because of the broad functions of TLR2 in innate immunity, the drive for the development of TLR2-targeted vaccines or therapeutic treatments has accelerated in the last decades.

Tuberculosis bacteria survive by hiding in our immune cells. In her PhD research, biologist Salomé Muñoz Sánchez explores how boosting the body’s own defenses might outsmart this deadly pathogen. Her work reveals two key proteins that help immune cells destroy the bacteria.

Promotor: H.P. Spaink, A.H. Meijer Co-promotor: R. Marin-Juez

Michiel van der Vaart with a team from Leiden University and the LUMC, led by IBL-researcher Annemarie Meijer, discovered that DRAM1 is a protein that regulates anti-bacterial autophagy, a defense mechanism against infections such as tuberculosis.

Josien de Klerk and Tennessee Miller examined the interplay between students’ illness and recovery experiences and academic work culture in this context.

Why are mycobacteria such successful pathogens? And are there defence mechanisms in the body that help reduce an infection? To find out, Annemarie Meijer has been awarded the NWO Open Competition ENW-XL grant. She will not explore this quest alone. Five other leading Dutch research groups are participating…

The cellular recycling system in zebrafish is capable of eating harmful bacteria and thus resist infections such as tuberculosis and salmonellosis. That is written by Leiden biologists from the group of Annemarie Meijer. Stimulating this form of defence could be used in new treatment methods against…

The opportunistic bacterium Burkholderia cenocepacia is feared by cystic fibrosis patients and is emerging in hospital-acquired infections. An international study sheds new light on the infection mechanism of this opportunistic pathogen that may have large implications for treatment strategies.

PhD defence

The infection rate is rising again in the Netherlands, which means it may also be rising among Leiden University’s students and staff. How is the University responding? And what dilemmas is it facing? We spoke to our Rector Magnificus, Chief Security Officer and two other administrators.

Suruchi Nepal, postdoc in the group of Coen van Hasselt at LACDR, was awarded an NWO XS project which aims to study the response to antibiotic treatment during a urinary tract infection (UTI). This knowledge will be used to determine how treatments of UTIs with antibiotics can be further improved.

Joost Beltman (LACDR, Leiden University) has provided novel insights in the way T cells migrate towards virus-infected cells. This was accomplished by a combination of experimental research in the group of Ton Schumacher (Dutch Cancer Institute, NKI) and computer simulations in collaboration with Rob…

A new AI model will soon be able to predict the risk of infection in postoperative patients. This will allow healthcare providers to take preventive measures and detect complications at an earlier stage.

New drugs for use as tuberculosis (TB) treatment are needed due to the constrains of classical antibiotics against TB and the rise of antibiotic-resistant strains, making TB a harder and harder disease to treat.

Globally, the number of deaths from infections is on the rise as more bacteria become resistant to antibiotics. New classes are desperately needed. A promising resistance inhibitor is now being developed by the research group of Nathaniel Martin, Professor of Biological Chemistry. Inaugural speech on…

The COVID Radar app is citizen science at its best. More than 200,000 users in the Netherlands are answering questions about their health and behaviour to help predict the development of the pandemic. Niels Chavannes, Professor of General Practice at Leiden University Medical Center, explains how the…

Promotores: T. Hankemeier; R. Berger, Co-promotor: R.J. Vreeken

The research described in this thesis has, using the zebrafish as a model system, shed new light on the intricate relationship between TB and DM2, in particular on the role of leptin, SHP-1 and glucocorticoids.

Antimicrobial drugs constitute a fundamental part of modern medicine. The global rise in antimicrobial resistance poses a major threat to global health.

A scientific assessment of the site selection for the ‘Frontiers of the Roman Empire’ Unesco World Heritage Site.

IBL-researcher Phil Elks in the group of Annemarie Meijer won the Cell Observatory Publication of the Year 2013. He received the award for his paper in PLoS Pathogens, showing that activation of hypoxia signaling protects against mycobacterial infection.

Optimised antibiotic combinations can combat bacteria more effectively while also slowing the development of resistance. Scientists from five European countries are joining forces to identify such combinations and provide tools for others to do the same. The project is led by Professor Coen van Hasselt…

As part of the ZonMW Antibiotics resistance funding program, the LACDR cluster Systems Pharmacology was awarded €455.255 for a research project to develop novel clinical biomarkers for bacterial infections.

This project explores themes at the intersection of maritime history and environmental history by looking at the problems Dutch ships encountered in the different climates of the Atlantic and Indian Ocean worlds, and the solutions they could provide.

The research described in this Thesis was aimed at designing and synthesizing nature-inspired compounds as part of TB vaccine discovery.