Plants not only sense when they are touched, but they can also adapt to it. For example, by strengthening or defending themselves. But how do plants do this? The Green TE (Green Tissue Engineering) consortium has been granted a Gravitation grant of almost 23 million euros to investigate exactly this…

Through various initiatives, Leiden University is trying to make people aware of the importance of biodiversity: the cultivation of a wide variety of micro-organisms, animals and plant species. This is important because in the Netherlands biodiversity has declined from about 40 percent in 1900 to about…

National Meat Free Week (Nationale Week Zonder Vlees, 7–13 March) is an initiative to reduce meat consumption. Assistant professor Paul Behrens is studying what impact a change in our food consumption would have on the world. What, according to him, are the main reasons to switch to a (mainly) plant-based…

Facility, Organisation

As an ethnobotanist, I study traditional plant use. Together with several PhD students, postdoc fellows and MSc students, I am involved in a number of research projects.

I am a PhD candidate at the IBL in the group of Prof. Ákos T. Kovács, where I study how circadian clocks shape interactions between the beneficial soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis and the model plant Arabidopsis thaliana, using molecular biology and microscopy approaches.

Do you also love a city where nature can bloom, crawl and flutter freely and exuberantly? And do you fancy a challenge out in the fresh air? If so, grab your mobile and take part in the BioBlitz 'Higher Education is Flourishing' from 22 May.

My group focuses on understanding the regulatory mechanisms by which plants integrate abiotic stress-derived signals into growth and developmental programs, and the molecular machinery that underlies stress memory in plants.

Paul Behrens and his team have won the Frontiers Planet Prize of half a million euros for their research into the effects of switching to a plant-based diet.

I’m a molecular geneticist with a foundation in biology, having obtained my BSc in Biology here in Leiden, where I was first introduced to the fascinating world of life sciences. My undergraduate studies sparked a deep interest in cell biology, cancer research, cell signalling, molecular genetics, and…

My main research subjects are urban flora and citizen science. I am working on a citizen science project where we map out where and what different pavement plants grow in cities and towns, together with citizens. Additionally, we want to see if participants will develop more attention for urban flor…

Maurijn van der Zee searches for insecticides that protect crops without harming wildlife or leaving residues in our food. His GREENSHIELD project received funding from the NWO Open Technology Programme.

Arthur started as a PhD candidate at the department of Industrial Ecology in February 2026 and works on the REAP2SOW project, focusing on the sustainability of novel food crops.

2,240 plant extracts from 1,299 different plant species of Dutch origin. That’s the collection of the Dutch Extract Library, which has recently been transferred to the Institute of Biology Leiden. To plant biologist and contact person for this library Pingtao Ding this is a true treasury. ‘To bring…

Dialysis patients experience a range of physical and mental symptoms that interact and influence each otherIn her doctoral research, psychologist Judith Tommel wanted to find the optimum approach to help these dialysis patients improve their quality of life. ‘We need to make sure we avoid excluding…

The jade vine (Strongylodon macrobotrys) is flowering at the Hortus botanicus in Leiden. The plant started producing multiple flower clusters three weeks ago and the first ones are now in full bloom.

PhD defence

Two Leiden research projects that focus on increasing the biodiversity of Dutch production systems for food and ornamental horticulture have started thanks to funding from the Dutch Research Council's KIC research programme.

Studying with a disability often costs additional time and energy. Leiden University wants to do all it can to offer equal chances to students with a disability. What can you do to support a student with a disability?

The digital accessibility expert group focuses on improving the accessibility of the university website, digital learning tools and digital examinations. As a result of the corona crisis many educational activities are now online. The group is therefore working closely with the Centre for Innovation…

I am interested in system-biology study of Streptomyces development. The developmental process of multicellular bacteria contains a high level of complexity, and it is related to various bio-activities. My study focuses on three aspects of this process, morphological differentiation, antibiotic production,…

PhD defence

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