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…

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

Can we enhance the capacity of host immune cells to kill mycobacteria via production of reactive nitrogen species?

The structure of bacterial cells provides crucial clues about their interaction with their host. What are the key structural features of a bacterial cell that determine pathogenicity? What roles do these structures play in the life cycle, and how do they change during the infection process?

Who benefits from CXCR/CXCL chemokine signaling during infection: host or pathogen?

Which immune mechanisms are involved in host defense against Staphylococcal infection?

How can Staphylococcus aureus bacteria subvert the host immune system?

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

How can zebrafish models be used to gain a better understanding of host-pathogen interaction mechanisms and to screen new drugs for infectious disease treatment?

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

Promotor: Prof.dr. J.N. Kok

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.

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

Chiodo

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

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

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.

PhD defence

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.

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 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.

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…

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

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

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.

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PhD defence

The aim of this thesis was to study phage infection in Streptomyces, focused on cell wall-deficient cells. Bacteriophages (or phages in short) attach to the cell wall of bacteria after which they replicate and lyse the host cell.

How is inflammation in tuberculosis controlled by interplay between autophagy and inflammasome signalling?

Can small molecule drugs restore the immune system’s ability to fight tuberculosis by boosting autophagy?

Control of infectious diseases poses continuous challenges for human health.

This thesis focuses on two processes involved in fighting infections: metabolism and immune cell motility and navigation.

Glucocorticoids (GCs) are widely prescribed as anti-inflammatory drugs due to their well-established immunosuppressive effects.

Can drug screening for tuberculosis treatment be made more efficient?

Health workers have always sought ways to fight disease in vulnerable groups in the population. It is now clear that such research also benefits more prosperous countries. African worm infections and innovative thermometers have shown Leiden researchers how to fight diseases of affluence and keep health…

Promotor: C.A.M.J.J. van den Hondel, Co-promotor: Sandra de Weert

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

Promotor: G.F.A. Kersten, W. Jiskoot, Co-promotor: B. Metz

The current resurgence of whooping cough is alarming, and improved pertussis vaccines are thought to offer a solution. Outer membrane vesicle vaccines (omvPV) are potential vaccine candidates, but omvPV-induced humoral responses have not yet been characterized in detail.

We perform multidisciplinary research at molecular, cellular, and organismal levels of animal biology to increase fundamental understanding of health and disease.