Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting millions of people world-wide.

These awards honour researchers who turn scientific insight into real-world impact. From master’s students to postdocs, they highlight exceptional work in life sciences, health sciences, biotech, or environmental health sciences with data science at the core. Meet the 2025 winners.

In the research programme Drug Discovery & Safety, we are interested in the efficacy and safety of new drugs and novel means to decipher these aspects. Hence, we employ advanced imaging and high-throughput screening techniques next to computational approaches such as chem- and bioinformatics.

Animal Sciences’ contributions to the Development & Disease research theme include the mechanisms and evolution of embryonic development, the development of cognitive mechanisms, and animal models for understanding mechanisms of human disease.

In this research group, led by Dr. Joost Beltman, the aim is to employ mathematical and computational dynamical modelling approaches in order to quantitatively and mechanistically understand the dynamical behaviour and regulation of intracellular networks of genes, proteins and metabolites as well as…

Promotores: Prof. Dr. Th.J.C. van Berkel, Prof. Dr. M. van Eck

This doctoral thesis is an effort to understand how lipid phase-separation induced by diacylglycerol analogues in lipid-based nanoparticles affects their in vivo behavior, leading to specific nanoparticle-protein communications and selective cell targeting.

The objective is to develop in vitro antigen degradation assays in order to mimic the fate of the antigen in vivo.

In photoactivated chemotherapy (PACT), a biologically active compound is caged by a light-cleavable protecting group.

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

Key publications of the Cardiovascular Pharmacology group

Courses cover a broad range of relevant subjects and provide in-depth theoretical knowledge as well as training in practical skills and advanced research tools.

The Green algae Chara as model system for intra and inter cellular transport processes.

Plants, algae and cyanobacteria have the amazing capacity to perform delicate photophysical and photochemical processes of light capture, excitation transfer, charge separation and catalysis in fluctuating living environments. As a consequence, photosynthetic proteins and membranes form dynamic architectures.…

Supervisor: Maarten Doornbos

The CIGR brings together a diverse range of unique expertise in genome research rooted in biology, chemistry and physics. Members of the CIGR investigate genome folding and genome transactions. An important aspect is direct as well as long term relevance for medicine.

This thesis seeks to investigate how cancer-associated mutations affect the pharmacological properties of selected GPCRs—primarily A2AAR and 5-HT2CR—through a combination of ligand binding assays, signaling readouts, kinetic profiling, and cellular functional assays.

Nanoparticles can be used as delivery systems for both small molecules and macromolecules such as proteins, peptides or oligonucleotides. This thesis focuses on the use of liposomes, nanometric vesicles formed by a lipid bilayer enclosing an aqueous core. Liposomes are highly versatile delivery syst…

Worldwide resurgence of pertussis necessitates the need for improvement of pertussis vaccines and vaccination strategies.

An overview of our infrastructure at the SPP division:

There are many complex links in the chain that provides patients with new drugs: from fundamental science, to clinical tests, to production. The entire chain can be found in Leiden. Leiden University, the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and the businesses at the Leiden Bio Science Park (LBSP)…

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.

Researchers at Leiden University have mapped genes that cause breast cancer cells to migrate. The Leiden toxicologists Professor Bob van de Water, Dr Wies van Roosmalen, Dr Sylvia E. Le Dévédec and colleagues studied 1500 individual genes. They found eight, including the SRPK1 gene, that regulate the…

How do plant defense genes get activated?

Cancer is considered the silent pandemic of the 21st century and the second leading cause of death worldwide.

Pharmaceutical companies, governments and the general public have become increasingly aware that animal models used in drug testing lack vital aspects to serve as an accurate representation of human biology. As models of the human body should become more physiologically relevant, animal models no longer…

Ecotox is located in an ambitious surrounding at the Leiden University. It is an initiative of both institutes Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML) and Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL).

Promotor: P. J. J. Hooykaas, Co-promotor: R. Offringa

This thesis describes the functional analysis of the Arabidopsis AHL15 gene.

The work described in this dissertation contributes to a better mechanistic understanding of nanoparticles in vivo. To achieve that goal, we used the zebrafish as a highly predictive pre-screening model of nanoparticles.

Image segmentation is a fundamental task in computer vision, with applications ranging from medical diagnostics to archaeological research.

This thesis describes the synthesis and biological evaluation of TLR2/6, TLR4, TLR7/8 and TLR9 ligands, of which the activity can be conditionally controlled.

Vaccination via the skin or the mucosae

Promotor: A. Kros, Co-promotor: R.R.C.L. Olsthoorn

There is concern about the threat that nanoplastics (NPs) may pose to both wildlife and humans. This thesis explores the mechanisms of toxicity of polystyrene nanoparticles (PS-NPs) in chicken embryo.

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

The goal of target discovery is to identify and validate proteins and biological pathways that are involved in the disease process. Modulating these target proteins and pathways with small molecules, therapeutic proteins or other biomolecules (e.g. mRNA) could deliver an effective and safe drug or v…

Promotors: W. Jiskoot; G.J. Witkamp, Co-promotor: M.R. Nejadnik

The function of TLRs in innate immunity has aroused worldwide attention soon after its discovery. Because of the broad functions of TLR2 in innate immunity, the drive for the development of TLR2-targeted vaccines or therapeutic treatments has accelerated in the last decades.

Human skin equivalents (HSEs) can be a valuable tool to study aspects of human skin, including the skin barrier, or to perform chemical or toxicological screenings.

Promotor: G.F.A. Kersten, W. Jiskoot, Co-promotor: B. Metz

The overarching goal of this thesis is to set the foundations, but also make the first essential steps towards establishing a comprehensive, mesoscopic, hydrodynamic theory of epithelial tissues. The stage is set by an exhaustive study of topological defects in passive p-atic liquid crystals, singularities…

Kinase inhibitors are key therapeutic agents, particularly in oncology, yet their clinical efficacy is often hampered by off-target effects and limited understanding of their cellular target profiles.

Animal Sciences’ contribution to the Bioactive Molecules research theme includes research on molecules from natural sources, such as plants, insects, and snake venom, with the aim to identify novel anti-cancer, anti-inflammatory, anti-microbial, and anti-diabetic agents.

The rapid advances in imaging technology enable to see inside the body with ever increasing detail.

The imaging group focuses on bio-imaging, image analysis and visualization.

Single-Molecule Microscopy (SMM) techniques constitute a group of powerful imaging tools that enable researchers to study the dynamic behavior of individual molecules.

Analysis of drug adversity