The ERC project ‘Healthscaping Urban Europe’ will hold a concluding plenary event on 30 September, where three experts will explore the history of premodern public health and especially reflect on possible future directions within this research field. All are welcome to join in person in the Doelenzaal.…

In this thesis I describe the results of Pulsed Interleaved Excitation and Fluorescence (Cross) Correlation Spectroscopy (PIE-F(C)CS) combined with single-pair Förster Resonance Energy Transfer (spFRET) used to study dynamics in single nucleosomes, which depends on subtle differences in the length of…

Promotores: W. Jiskoot, F. Ossendorp

Systems with local constraints is a new finding in recent researches on complex systems. The heterogeneous spatial interactions and the temporal dependencies among those numerous units make it difficult to describe by traditional statistical physics.

On the 23rd of March, Alessandro del Tomba successfully defended a doctoral thesis and graduated. The Leiden University Centre for Linguistics congratulates Alessandro on this achievement!

The experimental approach of science applied to artistic research

This thesis studies theoretical surface chemistry within the field of heterogeneous catalysis.

In the hunt for a vaccine against cervical cancer, fundamental knowledge about the immune system and organic chemistry have been brought together and have already resulted in a vaccine that is now being tested in clinical trials. Scientists are now working hard on an improved variant.

Complex systems can be characterized as systems in which multiple components interact with each other, often in non-linear ways. The main goal of this research will be to investigate if and how the international tax system can be defined and modelled as a complex system. Approaching the international…

In this thesis we will explore the use of fuzzy systems theory for applications in bioinformatics.

Electoral Systems and Turnout: Evidence From a Regression Discontinuity Design. In this article, published on the website SAGE research methods, authors Jaroslaw Kantorowicz and Tobias M. Hlobil discuss how a Regression Discontinuity Design can be executed.

In autoimmune diseases such as rheumatism and diabetes the immune system attacks autologous proteins. Leiden researchers are trying to discover how this comes about.

On 29 January 2019, Robbert van Eijk defended his thesis 'Web Privacy Measurement in Real-Time Bidding Systems, A Graph- Based Approach to RTB system classification'. The doctoral research was supervised by Prof. dr. H.J. van den Herik.

Promotor: Prof.dr. J. Kuiper

Knowledge and culture subproject 2:

It has been a long-standing mystery how complex biological structures emerge from such seemingly uncoordinated building blocks as cells and tissues, in the presence of only minimal environmental guidance.

This thesis tackles the difficulty of predicting the liver’s clinical response to novel therapies, a challenge arising from interspecies differences and limitations of existing in vitro models.

Pathways of toxicity

We have developed a microfluidic platform for complex 3D organotypic cell cultures (so-called organ-on-a-chip systems) which are suited for integration in 96 or higher well plate format.

Mechanical forces are known to play an important role in bacterial colonies. In this dissertation, we study the self-organization at various stages of growing bacterial colonies, and focus on the mechanical effects of cell growth.

Viral diseases constitute one of the major challenges in modern medicine. Membrane-targeting have broad-spectrum potential and could distinguish viral membranes from the host cell plasma membrane by the difference in membrane curvature.

This interdisciplinary research project explores several adaptive machine learning methods which can give insight into the interaction between human and machine. The ultimate goal is open and natural communication between humans and AI that should result in mutual trust, cooperation and coordination…

The Collective Experience of Empathic Data Systems (CEEDs) consortium developed novel integrated technologies that support experiencing, analysing and understanding of very large datasets.

As part of the NWO-funded research project ‘The Multilingual Dynamics of the Literary Culture of Medieval Flanders, c. 1200- c. 1500’, we invite proposals for 20 minute papers addressing any aspect of medieval literature and literary culture. We welcome proposals from scholars at all career stages—and…

Does powerlessness and dependence lead to the legitimation of the social, political, and economic status quo and of those in authority?

The key characteristic of active matter is the motion of an emergent collection (such as a flock of birds), which is driven by the consumption of energy by its active components (i.e. individual birds).

Cardiovascular diseases are among the most frequent causes of death in the world. The main underlying pathology of cardiovascular diseases is the development of atherosclerosis in the medium and large-sized arteries.

Promotor: W.Th.F. den Hollander Co-Promotor: F.M. Spieksma

Promotor: Prof.dr. E.F.A. Deprettere, Co-promoter: Todor P. Stefanov

Time-series forecasting through modelling sequences of temporally dependent observations has many industrial and scientific applications. While machine learning models have been widely used to create time-series forecasting models, creating efficient and performant time-series forecasting models is…

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.

In this thesis, we focus on novel proteins/mechanisms that regulate integrin-adhesion mediated mechano-transduction.

This dissertation revolves around the design and implementation of novel instrumentation and related measurement techniques, at the single molecule level, for use in biophysical research. Chapter 1 presents an introduction to the field of fluorescence-based single molecule measurements. In particular,…

Unconstrained day-to-day activities are difficult to quantify and how the corresponding movements shape the brain remain unclear. Here, we recorded all touchscreen smartphone interactions at a sub-second precision and show that the unconstrained day-to-day behavior captured on the phone reflects in…

There is a need for alternative methods to replace, reduce and refine (3R) animal experimentation. Combining experimental data from high-throughput in vitro studies with in silico modeling is a promising approach to unravel the effect of chemicals on living cells and to gain a better understanding of…

The main question of this research project concerns the extent to which light verbs in West Germanic languages participate in processes of language change.

Dissolution processes – next to aggregation processes - play an important role for fate prediction and environmental risk assessment of metal-based nanoparticles (MNPs). It is challenging to predict the kinetics of the dissolution process of MNPs in complex systems such as we can find in in vivo and…

Promotor: Prof.dr. B.R. Katzy, Co-promotor: R. Ortt

This study aims to explore the use of a behavioral-design-based approach in simulating patient flow through EMTs. It provides a dynamic behavioral simulation model to assess the interactions between patients, staff members, and the related dynamic movements/interactions with the health care facility,…

The map application includes information from old and new buildings archaeological projects. This makes it possible to investigate whether water facilities (wells, cisterns) and waste facilities (cesspits, sewers) were the privilege of Leiden’s wealthy elite in the late 16th and 17th centuries or whether…

Reducing greenhouse gas emissions is one of the most pressing challenges that humanity faces in the coming decades.

The long-held desire - to link structure directly to function and to explain molecular mechanisms based on basic chemical or physical principles - is finally coming closer, satisfying not only our scientific curiosity but also offering new solutions to the many challenges in the field of health, energy…

We are aiming to develop novel technologies to allow better sample preparation or coupling of analytical methods to (i) analyse ultra small samples, (ii) to analyse more metabolites in a quantitative manner and/or (iii) increase the sample throughput.

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