Promotor: Prof.dr. P. Hooykaas, Co-promotor: Dr. R. Offringa

PhD defence

More than 40 years ago, a wrecked merchant ship was found in the Wadden Sea. PhD student Geke Burger looked at this archaeological find from a historical perspective.

Using object assemblages to reconstruct activities, modes of deposition and abandonment at the Late Bronze Age dunnu of Tell Sabi Abyad, Syria.

Atherosclerosis (thickening of the artery wall) is the most common cause of heart attacks or strokes, and one of the most common causes of death in the western world. People with this condition have to take medicine all their lives, so a vaccine for atherosclerosis would be a breakthrough.

Key publications of the Aging and Immunity group

At a time when statues of figures from history have an uncertain future Valika Smeulders has just become Head of History at Amsterdam's Rijksmuseum. What changes does she want to make? And how does she look back on her Languages and Cultures of Latin America degree programme in Leiden?

The opening and inauguration of the Visitors Centre, and the visitors trail on the site, are an important result of the Tell Balata Archaeological Park project that is jointly being implemented by the Palestinian Department of Antiquities and Cultural Heritage, the Faculty of Archaeology of the University…

Promotor: J. Kuiper

Atherosclerosis is the main underlying pathology of cardiovascular disease. Atherosclerosis is caused by an immune response which is directed against (modified) lipoproteins which accumulate in the vessel wall.

Mouse models are commonly used to assess the immunogenicity of therapeutic proteins and to investigate the immunological processes leading to antidrug antibodies. The aim of this work was to develop a transgenic (TG) Balb/c mouse model for evaluating the immunogenicity of recombinant human insulin (insulin)…

The division of BioTherapeutics consists of the former divisions Biopharmaceutics and Drug Delivery Technology.

Immunotherapies for cancer are an emerging class of therapeutic strategies which aim to treat cancer via augmentation of the immune system.

The current hepatitis B vaccines need to be stored and transported under refrigerated conditions (2-8 degrees C). This dependence on a cold-chain is highly challenging in areas where hepatitis B virus infections are endemic.

Lipid nanoparticles (LNPs) have enabled the success of mRNA vaccines but remain limited in broader therapeutic use by challenges in delivery efficiency, targeting, and mechanistic understanding.

For more information regarding ongoing research projects, please contact Prof. Johan Kuiper.

In het Leids Universitair Medisch Centrum wordt gewerkt aan de ontwikkeling van een nieuw malariavaccin dat effectiever is dan de huidige vaccins.

Throughout the world fundamental labour rights in supply chains are being violated. Since the Rana Plaza disaster in Bangladesh shook the world, we can no longer turn our heads away.

Bacteria in the teeth tell us a lot about nutrition and disease in our ancestors. It also tells us more about the immune system. This provides clues for treating modern diseases and allergies. For a long time archaeologists were irritated by tartar on the teeth of excavated skulls. They thought that…

On 14 May 2021, Melanie Fink spoke at the conference ‘EU Responsibility in the International System: Setting the agenda’, organised by the University of Thessaloniki

Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease, and vaccination may be an attractive method to induce long lasting protection against endogenous factors that contribute to the development of atherosclerosis. We have shown that for example vaccination against modified LDL or interleukin-12 limits…

The Municipality of Dronten is temporarily bailing out the Central Agency for the Reception of Asylum Seekers (COA) in Ter Apel by accommodating 360 asylum seekers at the Biddinghuizen event site in the province of Flevoland. This helps the COA avoid a sky-high fine. Rowie Stolk, Assistant Professor…

Undesirable associations with sex can be unlearned, but return if the circumstances change. They must therefore be unlearned in different situations. The drug D-cycloserine may help here. These are the findings of psychologist Mirte Brom.

On Friday 15 January, the Dutch ‘Rutte III’ government resigned following the scathing report on the childcare benefits scandal. What are the political consequences?

This research examines how right-wing extremist parents perceive and discuss their role in the ideological socialisation of their children.

This paper examines the need and possibility for developing online resilience-based approaches in response to COVID-19 vaccine conspiracies, often linked to the far right.

Tuberculosis causes 1.5 million deaths yearly and anti-tuberculosis therapies are threatened by emergence of drug resistance. Development of innovative drug combinations should be accelerated with the use of translational pharmacological models. Moreover, host-directed therapies (HDT), which stimulate…

Epithelial cells play a crucial role in the lungs. PhD student Ying Wang researched the effects of cigarette smoke and viruses such as COVID-19 on these epithelial cells. ‘We hope to reduce the risk of pandemics in the future.’

Promotores: A.H. Meijer, H.P. Spaink

Promotores: Prof.dr. J. A. Bouwstra, Prof.dr. W. Jiskoot

New or improved treatments for chronic and acute illness.

Cardiovascular diseases are still a major concern for the global health.

Projects within the theme ‘Computational Biology’ aim to employ mathematical or computational dynamical modelling approaches to discover novel concepts that are important for drug development.

For more information regarding ongoing research projects, please contact Dr. Ilze Bot.

Animal Sciences’ contributions to the Host-Microbe Interactions research theme focus on the interaction of animal hosts with pathogenic microbes but also the beneficial role of the gut microbiome.

Vaccines are an extraordinary category of biopharmaceuticals. They are usually prophylactic and come in many types, from whole bacteria to peptides and nucleic acids. They are very cost effective and almost every human on the planet is vaccinated. The latter mandates that vaccines have to be extremely…

Researchers from the Netherlands Cancer Institute, the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and Oncode have created a tracking system that can reveal how often cells have divided. This allowed them to find a yet undiscovered population of immune cells: young memory cells that behave like stem cells.…

PhD candidate Shekinah Dare researched which psychological factors contribute to responsible financial behaviour and well-being. She wants to use this knowledge to develop interventions to encourage people to manage their money better. PhD ceremony on 10 November.

Leiden chemists discovered a new mechanism which might explain how multiple sclerosis shifts to a more severe form. Their findings contribute to unravelling the mysterious course of the disease. They have published their findings in the journal Biochemistry.

They hurtle along at over a thousand kilometres per second: the fastest stars in the Milky Way. PhD candidate Fraser Evans conducted research into these elusive hypervelocity stars and discovered that they have a lot to teach us, about black holes and supernovae, for example.

Treatment and care for cancer patients is becoming increasingly advanced. For example, surgeons can now perform operations with much greater precision, and therapeutic vaccines are being developed to prompt the patient’s immune system to fight cancer. Work is also being done on better early diagnostics,…

The infectious diseases malaria and tuberculosis are responsible for 2.1 million deaths every year. Leiden researchers are currently testing a new tuberculosis vaccine.

Jason Rudall, Assistant Professor of Public International Law at the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies, has published a monograph entitled 'Responsibility for Environmental Damage'.

A COVID-19 vaccine that specifically instructs the immune system to produce T-cells rather than antibodies is shown to provide good protection in a mouse model, Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) researchers report in Nature Communications. According to them, the alternative vaccine may offer a…