As of 1 July, toxicologist Mirjam Luijten from the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) starts as professor by special appointment at the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research (LACDR).

In July, 2018, the Institute of Biology Leiden hosted the 11th conference of the Zebrafish Disease Models Society (ZDMS), an international association dedicated to the advancement of basic and clinical research using zebrafish disease models. More than 350 researchers from all over the world gathered…

Physicists, including Leiden researcher, Sanli Faes, have devised a new technique for studying processes at microscale rapidly and extremely precisely. This new method will make it easier to develop antiviral medication. And it doesn’t stop there. Publication in ACS Nano.

Mini organs-on-chips allow us to study how diseases develop and how drugs work. Although the technology is not new, it is becoming increasingly advanced. PhD candidate Bart Kramer hopes it will eliminate animal testing in the future.

Former masterstudent Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences Maddalena Centanni will be awarded the 2020 Arenberg Coimbra Prize for Erasmus Students. Centanni spent her six month Erasmus exchange at Uppsala Universiy in Sweden where she looked for ways to improve anti-cancer drug dosing.

How do I conduct research? How do I structure, conduct and record what I’ve thought of and done? The Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences Programme didn’t just want students to perform a series of tests for the Cellular Biochemistry practical course. After a complete re-vamp - ‘From traditional cookbook lab…

Professor by Special Appointment of Clinical Neuropharmacology Geert Jan Groeneveld will deliver his inaugural lecture entitled ‘The importance of the biomarker’ on 11 March 2022. According to him, new genetic knowledge will revolutionise drug research.

The European Research Council, better known as the ERC, turns ten this year, and researchers from Leiden celebrated this on 23 June. The ERC is an important provider of research funding, also to Leiden University. Over the past ten years researchers from the University have been awarded over 70 ERC…

The Dutch X-omics Initiative has received seventeen million euros from NWO as part of the National Roadmap for Large-Scale Infrastructure. Leiden University’s metabolomics research led by Thomas Hankemeier is one of the participators.

Can a robot help prepare cancer medication in a hospital pharmacy? That’s what hospital pharmacist Tjerk Geersing investigated in his PhD research. He compared manual and automated preparations in terms of quality, efficiency, and safety. He graduated on 19 March.

On Friday the 29th of October, LACDR presented highlights of its research and teaching program during an online Lunchtime Talk session at the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

On 13 and Friday 14 July 2017 the International Congress took place in Porto, Portugal. The conference was bilangual with simultaneous translations between English and Portuguese/Spanish. In total there were about 350 participants from 23 different countries, however, most of the participants came from…

On the 21st of September, seven students of SBB visited OcellO at the Biopartner 2.

Aleydis Nissen published a feature article on the South Korean electronics industry in Eos magazine. The Pascal Decroos Fund sponsored this article.

On Friday the 6th of December, the annual symposium of the IBL was organized at the Buruma theatre (LUMC), Leiden. This year’s theme was “Biological Networks from Molecules to Society”.

On May 3rd, we had a successful LACDR Spring symposium. Traditionally the Spring symposium is an important platform for our PhD’s. We have highlighting the research activities of our PhD candidates. As Keynote speaker, Prof. dr. Matthias Mayer of the University of Heidelberg has given an interesting…

Pancras Hogendoorn, Professor of Pathology and Dean of the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), received an honorary doctorate from Semmelweis University in Budapest on Friday 8 October 2019.

Light can be used to apply forces on single cells. Focused lasers have been used by physicists to tweeze particles and to manipulate them. These so called “optical tweezers” can be used as mechanical phenotyping tools for characterising the mechanics of materials and living objects.

The delegation from Leiden University Medical Center, led by Dean Marlies Reinders, visited Surabaya, Makassar, and Jakarta in October 2025 to explore opportunities for research and academic cooperation. This visit marks an important step in strengthening international ties and fostering long-term collaboration…

Alexander Kros studies supramolecular systems in a biological environment. The unifying theme between the projects in my lab is specific molecular recognition, i.e. the intermolecular interaction between complementary molecules with high affinity and selectivity. Studying, imitating and dissecting processes…

Computers are capable of making incredibly accurate predictions on the basis of machine learning. In other words, these computers can learn without intervention once they have been pre-programmed by humans. At LIACS, we explore and push the borders of what a revolutionary new generation of algorithms…

The LHSC booster grants awarded are described below. The summaries below are aimed at the general public. For further detail, please contact the researchers in question.

If you are interested in Life Science and you are looking for a programme with ample opportunities to put together your own study path, our Life Science and Technology programme is the right choice. The programme focuses on societal problems at the molecular and cellular level.

This project investigates the globalization and cultural mediation of palliative care practices, policies and discourses.

Koen Keijzer combined three mathematical models into one unified system capable of making meaningful predictions about how cells form blood vessels. This helps biologists studying the chaotic, leaky blood vessels found in and around tumours.

Ten students at Leiden University were awarded a scholarship by the VSB Foundation, during a festive event in the Hortus Botanicus on 8 June. This scholarship will allow them to take a master's, or a second master's, or carry out a research project abroad. Who are they and what will they be doing?

Sixteen researchers at Leiden University have received a Veni award from the Netherlands Organisation for Academic Research (NWO). This award offers promising young researchers the opportunity to further develop their ideas for a period of three years.

Within a single generation, the digital world has changed completely: from a technical niche for ‘nerds’ to a reality that affects everyone. Cyberattacks, data breaches and system failures can disrupt essential social processes. How can we ensure that our society remains digitally resilient?

It poured down when Alexander Gallo received his diploma from West Point Military Academy. A bad sign, people said back then. It was June 2001, three months before 9/11. The now 46-year-old American fought in Iraq, did research in Afghanistan and stands in Leiden today, defending his dissertation on…

The whole world is waiting anxiously for sufficient supplies of coronavirus vaccines. As Launch Navigator at Pfizer, alumnus Dennis de Mik must help ensure that the Netherlands receives 19.8 million doses of the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. How is he going about this and how has his Bio-Pharmaceutical Sciences…

As of 1 July, Professor of Mathematical Biology Roeland Merks has got a full appointment at Leiden University. Before this expansion, he worked one day a week at the Mathematical Institute (MI). Merks will work half of his full appointment at the MI and the other half at the Institute of Biology Leiden…

From 1 September, the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) will be offering a fully funded regular Master’s programme in Vitality and Ageing.

The Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) selects prominent researchers as members based on their scientific achievements. On September 17th, the KNAW will install 21 new members, including Leiden physicist Michel Orrit and chemist Hermen Overkleeft.

In the field of metabolomics, capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry (CE-MS) has become a very useful analytical technique for the profiling of highly polar and charged metabolites in biological samples. In order to highlight the unique features of CE-MS for metabolomics studies, Dr. Rawi Ramautar…

The Metabolomics Facility of Leiden University is now officially in operation to prevent disease and to improve health throughout the human lifespan.

Tuesday May 24th, the LACDR Annual Spring Symposium was held.

Professor Hermen Overkleeft has received the esteemed Roy L. Whistler International Award in Carbohydrate Chemistry for 2024 by the International Carbohydrate Organization. The award recognises Overkleeft’s outstanding contributions to the field of carbohydrate chemistry and biochemistry.

Two AI research projects receive funding; one in the field of oncology and one in the field of cardiology.

Evolution is all around you every day. This is the message of a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) of Leiden University and Naturalis that is offered free of charge to anyone interested.

Two Leiden researchers have been awarded ERC Proof of Concept grants. These grants, each worth EUR 150,000, will help the grantees in their efforts to bridge the gap from basic science to real-life applications

The tuktuk of the European City Of Science Leiden 2022 sent science on its way to the neighbourhood. In the town center of Oegstgeest, the Empathy Team, consisting of Liesbeth van Vliet, Hinke Hoffstadt, Yvette van der Linden and Jenny van der Steen, took interested visitors on a journey into the experience…

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Conference

The school curriculum is often geared towards teaching the next generation of scientists, but in many ways, children already are natural scientists. Their curiosity pushes them to constantly question the world, and their creativity drives them to novel conclusions. However, too many children believe…

Eveline Crone, Professor of Neurocognitive Developmental Psychology, has been awarded the NWO Spinoza Prize for her high-profile research on adolescent development. NWO announced the award on 16 June. What will Crone do with the award of 2.5 million euros?

Janna Marie Bas-Hoogendam, Stefanie Meeuwis, and Eliška Procházková have all been awarded a share of the Aspasia diversity grant obtained by Mariska Kret. These three promising young psychologists will each receive 10,000 euros as a stepping stone towards a career in science. This gives them three months…

Aad van der Vaart, professor of stochastics at Leiden University, has been awarded the NWO Spinoza Prize for his groundbreaking research in statistics. Van der Vaart conducts fundamental research on models that can help, for instance, to identify genes that play a role in cancer.

Dovilė Rimkutė, Assistant Professor at the Institute of Public Administration in The Hague, received the prestigious VENI grant for her research on risk regulation. 'We expect science to be the core basis of risk regulators’ decisions,' says Rimkutė, 'but at times threats to the regulators’ reputation…

Proton therapy is a new way of treating cancer in which radiation doses are delivered more precisely. This results in less damage to surrounding tissue and fewer side effects. Professor Marco van Vulpen is medical director of HollandPTC in Delft, where the social value of this therapy is studied. Van…