This thesis explored the molecular pharmacological mechanisms of targeting CB2R via investigation of novel drug discovery concepts such as target binding kinetics, allosteric modulation and biased signaling.

Promotor: M. Ubbink, Co-promotor: G. Siegal

Professor of Clinical Pharmacology Adam Cohen from Leiden University received the prestigious Dr. Saal van Zwanenberg Honorary Prize on 12 November. The prize honours a scientist who has distinguished themselves in the field of research that has directly or indirectly led to the development of new medicines…

Four university medical centres, including the LUMC, are joining forces to increase pandemic preparedness in the Netherlands.

PURPOSE: To determine the effect of elasticity on the skin permeation of ketoprofen from surfactant-based vesicular formulations and elastic liposomes.

The zebrafish is a promising vertebrate model organism in early drug discovery and development.

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

Nanodiscs are small, disc-shaped structures designed to mimic biological cell membranes, composed of a lipid bilayer stabilized by scaffold proteins. Membrane proteins play crucial roles in essential processes such as nutrient and waste transport, molecular recognition, and cell signalling, making them…

'It gave our team a big boost to hear that our work was valuable,' says medical chemist Elmer Maurits about the moment they won the Venture Challenge. With their company Iprotics, they want to develop a drug that can better treat patients with autoimmune diseases and blood cancers. 25,000 euros of prize…

In this thesis, mathematical modeling and simulation was applied as a tool to inform quantitative decision making in oncology drug discovery and development.

In the research programme Microbial Sciences we perform state-of-the-art research in the field of biotechnology and microbial sciences.

Fascinated by science since high school, Alireza Mashaghi Tabari is driven to explore new ways of thinking in medicine. With a strong academic network, he educates students and gives public lectures. For his research at LACDR, he won the C.J. Kok Public Award 2018, making him the Faculty of Science's…

The adenosine receptors are proteins that reside in the extracellular membranes of cells. Activation of adenosine receptors plays a role in many physiological and pathological processes, such as immune responses and cancers.

Drug development critically depends on preclinical models that mimic human physiology, yet traditional two-dimensional cultures and animal models often lack predictive power.

In this thesis, a system pharmacology approach, integrating metabolomics, pharmacology and chemical biology, was applied to understand and modulate the endocannabinoid system across different model systems (cells, zebrafish, mice and humans).

PhD defence

Developing new medicines is one of modern science's most significant hurdles, a process marked by high costs, long timelines, and frequent failures of promising candidates.

Drug development is hampered by the limited predictive value of conventional 2D culture systems, which fail to recapitulate the complexity of the disease microenvironment and contribute to high clinical attrition rates.

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

Not taking into account the saturation of drug targets can lead to wrong conclusions about the duration of a drug's action. This is what former PhD candidate Wilbert de Witte writes together with the Leiden professors of pharmacology Meindert Danhof, Piet van der Graaf, and Liesbeth de Lange in Nature…

The clinical potential of applying synthetic lethality to cancer treatment is famously demonstrated by the BRCA1/PARP1 paradigm: a tumor specific defect in BRCA1 – a component of the DNA double-strand break (DSB) repair pathway homologous recombination (HR) – results in a remarkable sensitivity to PARP1…

Promotor: E. Bouwman, Co-promotor: S. Bonnet

The disease acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is characterized by fast progression and low survival rates.

Lecture

Dissolving microneedles are a subgroup of microneedle types that completely dissolve within the skin. During this dissolving process the vaccine, stored in the needle matrix, is released into the skin.

RARE-NL, a new collaboration between university hospitals, hopes to find treatments for rare diseases. Professor Teun van Gelder is representing the LUMC in the initiative.

The molecular mechanisms that instigate a healthy cell to become malignant are fueled by (epi)genetic alterations in so-called driver genes.

The prevalence of obesity (BMI >40 kg/m2) has increased rapidly over the recent years, not only in adults, but also in children and adolescents.

In this research group, headed by Laura Heitman, novel receptor concepts in drug discovery are studied, aiming to increase the effectivity of medicines. Many drugs act via so-called G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) and therefore our research is mainly focused on understanding and improving drug-receptor…

Getting personal

The present thesis focuses on the pharmacological concept of drug-target interaction, which dates back to the beginning of modern pharmacology.

Promotor: Prof.dr. A. P. IJzerman, Co-Promotor: Dr. L.H. Heitman

Knowledge on how to adjust a drug dose in special patient populations such as (prematurely born) neonates or children, obese individuals or critically-ill patients, is not only crucial for novel compounds, but also for existing drugs which are often used in an off-label manner in these special patient…

The risk of a brain tumour recurring can be predicted more accurately by counting the number of immune cells in the tumour under a microscope. These are the findings from research conducted by LUMC, Erasmus MC and Heidelberg University.

Research lines within the Pharmacy group:

The research conducted at the Leiden Academic Centre for Drug Research is clustered within the divisions of BioTherapeutics, Cell Systems and Drug Safety, Medicinal Chemistry and Systems Pharmacology and Pharmacy, and the Metabolomics and Analytics Centre.

The chain that supplies patients with new medicines consists of various complex links: from fundamental research to clinical tests and production. This entire chain is represented in Leiden. Leiden University, the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC), and the companies on the Leiden Bio Science Park…

Glycosidases are important enzymes in the turnover of polysaccharides and glycoconjugates, and are involved in a range of human pathologies including genetic disorders such as Gaucher and Pompe disease, but also in various cancers.

Despite recent advances in medicine, many devastating disorders like cancer and cardiovascular, neurodegenerative and infectious diseases still lack effective treatments. In order to address this challenge, we, as scientists from Leiden University, joined hands in the LED3 network. LED3, for Leiden…

In neonates and infants, body size, enzyme pathways, and expression and function of receptors and (target) proteins are still developing.

At Leiden University, in both our biomedical and biological research, we use laboratory animals. Learn more about these specific areas of research and the goals we aim to achieve through these studies.

Our research programme collaborates with all kinds of partners to achieve our goal: bringing scientific discoveries to the clinic as soon as possible.

Pathways of toxicity

Promotor: C.A.J. Knibbe, Co-promotores: H.P.A. van Dongen, B. van Ramshorst

Is there a sufficiently large market for drug screening and testing in Zebrafish larvae using membrane fusion?

Traditional drug discovery approaches have been hampered by (in vitro) cell-culture models that poorly represent the situation in the human body.

A monthly lecture series about early drug discovery research at Leiden University.