Soil ecologists Emilia Hannula (Leiden) and Elly Morriën (UvA) received the Golden Medal of Teylers Tweede Genootschap on 5 November. They received the prize for their submission to a competition on sustainable soil management.

Vinasse is a major by-product generated by the sugarcane biofuel industry. It is a source of microbes, nutrients and organic matter and often it is recycled as fertilizer.

Fungal infections pose a significant threat to individuals with compromised immune systems and despite advancements in diagnosis and treatment, they continue to jeopardize patient’s health.

Develop a prototype combined chemical-microbial enzymatical process for the sustainable, green recycling and revalorization of polyamides and polystyrene

The overall objectives of my thesis are to investigate the dynamics of the sorghum root microbiome and to explore the beneficial effects of the root microbiome on sorghum growth and stress tolerance.

Plants and soils from natural ecosystems harbor great diversity of soil microorganisms, which could potentially contribute to the sustainability of horticulture. The knowledge about using wild plant species and soil from natural ecosystem to improve the crop health will advance the application of ecological…

Mycoheterotrophy is a particular mode of life in which plants obtain carbohydrates from their associated fungal partners, instead of by using photosynthesis.

Engineering an efficient microbial enzymatic polyethylene degradation pathway via an innovative combination of biochemistry and computational biology tools for enzyme discovery and characterization.

This thesis examines enzyme domain architecture and engineering to improve the breakdown of lignocellulose and starch, abundant biopolymers crucial for sustainable biofuel and biochemical production. Carbohydrate-active enzymes (CAZymes) facilitate this degradation, but the structural complexity of…

Promotor: J.A. van Veen, Co-promotor: E.E. Kuramae

Submissions are sought for a special issue with Frontiers in Political Science that explores the conceptual and practical aspects of a ‘just’ energy transition both within and beyond Europe. In particular, contributions to the theoretical and interdisciplinary foundations of just transitions, as well…

Throughout the 17th and 18th centuries, the city of Batavia was supplied with produce by its hinterland, known as the Ommelanden. Bondan Kanumoyoso studied the history of the various ethnic groups that populated this area and in doing so has shed light on the structure of modern-day Indonesian society.…

ESA’s Gaia mission has produced the richest star catalogue to date, including high-precision measurements of nearly 1.7 billion stars and revealing previously unseen details of our home Galaxy.

The Board of Examiners consists of scientific staff members of the IBL, Naturalis Biodiversity Center and CML, who teach in the biology programmes. They are appointed by the Board of the Faculty of Science and act independently from the research institutes. The responsibilities of the board include…

Can furan-based resisn be degraded by microbial enzymes in combination with mild pre-treatment?

Promotors: Prof.dr. P.J. Punt, Prof.dr. C.A.M.J.J. van den Hondel

Microbial Sciences' contribution to the Bioactive Molecules research theme is to discover new bioactive molecules and enzymes and unravel their mechanisms of action, regulatory networks, and the (bio)synthetic pathways required for their production.

Plants and their pollinators form complex interaction networks. Within these networks, species differ widely in the number of species they interact with.

The aim of the project is to contribute to the process of archive formation ongoing in Post-Apartheid South Africa through the inclusion of photographs that have been either unacknowledged or excised from the national canon.

How do plants lure microscopically small 'support teams' into their roots for protection against diseases? And what functions are activated in the microbes and the plants?

On Thursday 7 and Friday 8 December 2017, Leiden University’s Hazelhoff Center for Financial Law and the European University Institute in Florence jointly organized a PhD workshop in Leiden.

On Wednesday 25 January, the British Embassy, the Global Transformations and Governance Challenges (GTGC) programme at Leiden University and Women in International Security Netherlands (WIIS-NL) were hosting a round table with Professor Bina D’Costa to discuss the prevention of conflict related sexual…

Learning from nature and utilizing microbial biodiversity to identify and characterize enzymes for degradation and upcycling of plastics and other polymeric materials.

On the basis of the characteristic aspects of a picture, certain computers can tell us what the picture is showing. They can learn this in the same way that young children are able to learn to recognize images. Further improving these techniques opens the way to a whole range of new applications. Biology…

Microbes influence and respond to other organisms. This theme explores the dynamic relationships within plant and animal microbiomes, and the immune responses that govern host defense. Using model systems such as zebrafish, insects, and plants, we investigate fundamental processes and engineer microbes…

Plant Sciences' contribution to the Development & Disease research theme is to unravel the processes that allow plants to adapt to changing abiotic and biotic environmental conditions or stresses, with the aim to contribute to the sustainable production of food, flowers and bio-based products using…

Music from a compostable cello, photographs and scents of fungi and a woven tapestry. With her upcoming multimedia project Super Organism, visual artist Suzette Bousema enables people to experience the underground fungal network with all their senses. Environmental scientist Nadia Soudzilovskaia and…

On Thursday 30 May, Leiden University hosts a workshop to foster collaborations to improve the governance of European textile waste export. Different stakeholders, including municipalities, associations of textile collectors and sorters, industry and consumers associations, are warmly invited to join…

Seminar

Bacteria and fungi on organic dairy farms are significantly different from those on conventional farms. That was discovered by postdoc researcher Sofia Gomes and her supervisors Nadia Soudzilovskaia and Peter van Bodegom in collaboration with the Louis Bolk Institute and Naturalis Biodiversity Centre.…

Remko Offringa, Associate Professor in Plant Developmental Genetics, and Associate Professor in Molecular Microbiology Arthur Ram both have been appointed as the new Directors of Education at the IBL. Offringa in the role as Director of Education for the Master program and Ram as Director for the Bachelor…

Leiden researchers have compiled information collected by scientists over the past 120 years into a database of plant-fungal interactions. This important biological data is now freely available for researchers and nature conservationists. Publication in New Phytologist.

Lecture

Cees van den Hondel, IBL-professor and 2010 Programme director of the Fungus programme of the Kluyver Centre received the royal distinction

This year, microbiologist Arthur Ram will start new research on producing useful enzymes in bulk. Ram receives an NWO grant for this project that will find its applications in the industrial biotechnology and food industry.

Eight scientists from Leiden University have been awarded a grant by the Dutch Research Council (NWO). With this Vidi funding, the researchers can set up an innovative line of research and further expand their own research group over the next five years.

PhD defence

Dr. Erik Vijgenboom (IBL) and Dr. Peter Punt (IBL/TNO) obtained a new NWO-grant for their project FILAZYME to develop filamentous micro-organisms for enzyme production to degrade biomass.

A team of researchers at the Institute of Biology Leiden, in collaboration with scientists from Utrecht University, has discovered a novel approach to improve the production of antibiotics and enzymes in the soil bacteria Streptomycetes.

We investigate bacteria and fungi to understand their malicious or beneficial impact on food crops and their pathogenic or antibiotic role in human health.

Fungi living in vanilla plants play a role in the development of the taste and smell of vanilla, according to Shahnoo Khoyratty of the Institute of Biology Leiden. PhD defence on 27 October.

Leiden Biology student Pam Engelberts received the annual award for being the best BSc-student in 2016 from the “Stichting Professor Dr. K. Bakker-fonds”.