Conference
New Year's Reception Faculty of Science
- Date
- Tuesday 6 January 2026
- Time
- Address
-
Gorlaeus Building
Einsteinweg 55
2333 CC Leiden - Room
- First floor atrium (rear side)
Programme
15:00 hrs Take a seat
15:30 hrs New Year's Reception
- New Year's Speech by Jasper Knoester, dean FWN.
- Tuesday Talk - lecture by Meindert Lamers (Professor of Structural Biology & Director of NeCEN): Electron microscopy for understanding disease and finding new cures.
- Presentation of Faculty Awards - Who will be Teacher of the Year? Which PhD or bachelor student wrote the best thesis/dissertation?
17:00 hrs Drinks at De Fusie
No registration is required. Just come along and join!
The Tuesday Talk is Leiden Science’s monthly dose of research inspiration from our staff, for our staff.
About the talk
Electron microscopy is an extremely versatile technique that provides high resolution images of biological samples over six orders of magnitude. At the larger volumes, electron microscopy provides unique insight into the structural organization of multi-cellular tissues and gives valuable information on the cellular organization in healthy and diseased states. At the cellular and sub-cellular level, the internal structural features of a cell become apparent, providing insights into the possible cause of a dysfunctional cell. Finally, at the highest resolution, cryo-electron microscopy resolves the atomic details of protein structures and their interaction with inhibitors. Thus, electron microscopy is a powerful tool for understanding disease and finding new cures. In this talk I will present examples of how electron microscopy has given insights into the cause of poorly understood disease features, has validated organoid models and has been instrumental in the development of novel antibiotics to treat bacterial pathogens.
Biography
Prof. Meindert Lamers studied Medical Biology at the University of Amsterdam. After completing his master's degree, he performed his PhD research in the group of Titia Sixma at the Netherlands Cancer Institute, where he studied DNA mismatch repair. Following his PhD, he moved to UC Berkely - California for his postdoctoral research in the lab of John Kuriyan, studying DNA replication. In 2009 he moved to the Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge - UK, where he started his own research group on DNA replication and DNA repair. In 2017 he moved his group to the Leiden University Medical Center, where he continued his research in DNA replication and DNA repair and expanded his work into the development of novel antibiotics. Since 2019 he is director of the national cryo-EM center NeCEN at the Leiden University Faculty of Science.