People who have negative expectations about a treatment actually experience more pain. Merve Karacaoglu discovered in her PhD research that anxious and pessimistic individuals are particularly susceptible to this nocebo effect. However, this sensitivity comes with a silver lining.

Véronique de Gucht conducts research in clinical health psychology, specifically on chronic conditions and sensitivity to stimuli.

Exercising less, skipping parties and struggling at work: the expectation of chronic pain and itching can lead to avoidance behaviour. But this is by no means the case for everyone with chronic pain, as PhD candidate Gita Nadinda discovered. What does this mean for healthcare?

Amorphophallus decus-silvae, or the ‘penis plant’ as it is known, has just flowered at the Hortus botanicus. It flowered for two days, and then the pollen, which the male flowers produced was collected. As far as the plant experts at the Hortus can tell, this was just the third time that this species…

The Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL) has a new professor: as of 1 March, Frederic Lens has been appointed Professor of Biodiversity and Anatomy of Plants. For Lens, the appointment feels like a wonderful recognition. ‘I am pleased with Leiden University’s appreciation of my contributions to research…

The Netherlands is losing plant species that rely on pollination by insects. Leiden environmental scientist Kaixuan Pan demonstrates this after analysing 87 years of measurements from over 365,000 plots. The news is alarming for our biodiversity and food security. ‘75 per cent of our crops and 90% of…

Barbara Gravendeel is interested in the genomic and developmental basis of evolutionary changes (evo-devo) in plants.

The Plants & Planets exhibition brings two worlds together in a dazzling mix of science, nature and art. It opens at Old Observatory Leiden and Hortus botanicus on 7 February.

Plants can’t run away from enemies. Still, it would like to keep life-threatening herbivores at a distance. This can be done with odours. Klaas Vrieling of the Institute of Biology Leiden found out with his team how plants change odour production to keep the munchers at a distance.

Soils house an overwhelming abundance and diversity of living (micro)organisms. In our research we examine how plants influence the soil they grow in, and how these changes influence other plants that grow later in the soil, and the insects on those plants. We study the mechanisms of these aboveground-belowground…

Plant biologist Pingtao Ding, assistant professor at the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL), has received a 2.4 million European grant from the European Research Council (ERC). This ERC Starting Grant for promising young researchers allows him to unravel the molecular mechanisms by which plants resist…

Research on Asian plants is his life's work. Now a crown is added to that: a plant from the coffee family bearing his name. Paul Kessler is LUF professor of botanical gardens and botany of South East Asia and Scientific Director of the Hortus botanicus. 'Completely unexpectedly, you get to see the results…

Drained leaves and plants stripped bare. Insects can completely destroy crops. Soon, these situations may be behind us, with the new pesticide developed by Leiden and Wageningen researchers. With their plant-based ‘insect glue’, insects are incapacitated.

An e-coaching programme helps people with chronic kidney disease, particularly in areas that patients themselves want to work on. ‘A healthy lifestyle is important for patients with kidney disease: it can slow down the loss of kidney function and there will be fewer complications,’ Katja Cardol explains…

Third-year cultural anthropology student Claire van Helder (24) says she can't be kept still. She has her own blog, is active on Instagram and recently started a YouTube channel. She is a member of the student party LVS, elected to the faculty council and will become the president of WDO in September.…

‘What I find most alluring about soil life is that you can steer it,’ researcher Martijn Bezemer of the Institute Biology Leiden (IBL) reveals. ‘You can ask: What do you want? And then I can transform the soil into something you need. At least, that is what we thought.’

Together with psychologists and immunologists from Utrecht, he proved as one of the first that stress affects the immune system. After obtaining his PhD he worked at the University of Amsterdam.

For a few years now, Leiden’s Hortus botanicus has been mounting a campaign to cherish wild plants in the city – for the biodiversity and beauty of this spontaneous vegetation. Botanical artists reveal this beauty in an exhibition at Oude UB in Leiden.

PhD candidate Jianhong Zhou aimed to better understand whether and how plant species adapt to environmental changes. She developed two databases that she used to analyze how easily or difficultly plants adapt to changing conditions. Zhou defended her PhD thesis on 4 September.

I am a PhD student at the Carrion lab, working on the MicroGRICE project, whose primary goal is to reduce methane emissions from rice paddies through bacteria. In addition, I study the role of microbiomes and bacteria in alleviating salt stress on rice plants. My overarching research goal is the development…

The ‘Amorphophallus titanum’ at the Hortus botanicus Leiden is blooming. This Titan Arum, also known as the ‘giant penis plant’, last flowered in 2009.

During my PhD at KU Leuven (Belgium, 2000–2005), I explored evolutionary and ecological patterns in the wood anatomy of flowering plants. As a postdoctoral researcher (2005–2010), I expanded my focus to functional anatomy, allowing me to link wood anatomical traits to drought tolerance. This integrative…

What started with an old Soviet camera and a darkroom in London grew into a lifelong passion. Developmental biologist Michael Richardson has been capturing nature - from wild coastal plants to microscopic details in the lab - since his childhood.

A new study carried out by Leiden archaeologists Hadar Ahituv and Amanda Henry, together with international colleagues, reports the identification and analysis of 650 starch grains preserved on basalt percussive tools (anvils and hammerstones) found at an early Middle Pleistocene site in Israel. These…

I am a PhD student in Carrion Lab and Microbial Ecology Department at NIOO-KNAW. In my project I aim to decipher endophytic microbial functions activated upon pathogen infection. I am also involved in developing bioinformatic tools and its use for the prediction of endophytic lifestyle and confirmation…

Soil that is too wet, or too dry. Or with a lot or few nutrients. Due to climate change, the differences are becoming bigger, and plants must increasingly be able to adapt to survive. How do you make plants more stress-resistant? For this purpose, researchers from Leiden, along with other universities,…

Lecturer in sustainability with an expertise in how climate change affects ecosystems.

Plants are extraordinary biochemists and produce a plethora of valuable specialized metabolites (i.e. natural products), including some of our most important medicines. In my lab we want to understand specialized metabolite biosynthesis on a molecular level to improve cultivated plant systems and advance…

Why do some groups of organisms evolve into many species, while evolution is much slower in other groups, places, or time periods? Why do some species go extinct, and why are some more resilient to major impacts or ecosystem changes? I study the ecology and evolution of flowering plants to answer these…