262 search results for “biology” in the Staff website
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Cisca Wijmenga new member of Board of Governors
The Board of Governors is pleased to announce that Professor Cisca Wijmenga has been appointed by outgoing Minister of Education, Culture and Science Robbert Dijkgraaf as its new member.
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In Memoriam Kennedy Kaminju Kariuki 05/11/1988- 28/12/2023
On the 30th of December, we received the sad message that our Kenyan colleague, Kennedy Kaminju Kariuki died on December 28, 2023 in the NW hospital in Nairobi at the age of 35 years from organ and heart failure. Kennedy was a PhD candidate at the CML, Leiden University.
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Special nanoparticles for cancer therapy! Will you help?
Developing a better treatment for patients with head and neck cancer, that is what Binanox, The 2022 iGEM Leiden team, want to achieve. They hope to raise at least 10,000 euros for this cause. Support their crowdfunding campaign today.
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Research projects launched into biodiversity in food and horticulture production
Two Leiden research projects that focus on increasing the biodiversity of Dutch production systems for food and ornamental horticulture have started thanks to funding from the Dutch Research Council's KIC research programme.
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Wat is er te doen op de Leidse Museumnacht?
Op zaterdag 3 juni vindt de Museumnacht Leiden plaats. Ook dit jaar zijn Leidse wetenschappers en studenten onderdeel van de programmering.
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Prize for school research project on butterfly wings
Why are morpho butterflies blue? That is what high school students Frederique Kerstens and Koen van Griensven investigated in their high school profile paper at the Leiden Institute for Research in Physics. In doing so, they won the KHMW Profielwerkstukprijs 2023. ‘We didn't expect it, but are of course…
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Annemarie Meijer benoemd als vertrouwenspersoon promovendi
Annemarie Meijer benoemd als vertrouwenspersoon promovendi.
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Spotlight on girls in Science: RISE lanceert jongerenraad
On the International Day of Women and Girls in Science (11 February) RISE puts the spotlight on four women in our faculty. The Researchers in Science for Equality (RISE) network is launching a junior board on this special day. Their main task? Optimise the information provision between RISE and the…
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Rose Vossen wins Young Star Award 2021
Rose Vossen has been named winner of the Young Star Award 2021. The Life Science and Technology student received the award on Monday from Ewine van Dishoeck, the founder of the award. Vossen wins a cheque for 2,500 euros for her exceptional results as a bachelor's student. During her final bachelor…
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New insights into mycobacterial infections with NWO grant
Why are mycobacteria such successful pathogens? And are there defence mechanisms in the body that help reduce an infection? To find out, Annemarie Meijer has been awarded the NWO Open Competition ENW-XL grant. She will not explore this quest alone. Five other leading Dutch research groups are participating…
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Heineken Young Scientists Award for three Leiden researchers
Three of the four Heineken Young Scientists Awards for 2022 have gone to researchers from Leiden: chronobiologist Laura Kervezee, physicist Jordi Tura i Brugués and health psychologist Liesbeth van Vliet.
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Martina Vijver new Scientific Director of the CML institute
As of 1 September, Martina Vijver is the new Scientific Director of the Institute of Environmental Sciences. She succeeds Arnold Tukker, who led the institute since 2013 and served the maximum term of two times four years. Vijver has been appointed for a period of four years.
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Sticky insects: plants protected with biological glue
Drained leaves and plants stripped bare. Insects can completely destroy crops. Soon, these situations may be behind us, with the new pesticide developed by Leiden and Wageningen researchers. With their plant-based ‘insect glue’, insects are incapacitated.
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‘We couldn't really celebrate our vaccine being approved, but we were over the moon’
On 11 March, pharmaceutical company Janssen received approval to launch its corona vaccine on the European market. This made Janssen the fourth company to be given the green light by the European Medicines Agency. As Lead of the Janssen Campus in the Netherlands, Biology alumnus Bart van Zijll Langhout…
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€10.6 million for innovative toolboxes to tackle brain cancer
Researchers at the Universities of Amsterdam (Uva) and Leiden together with the Netherlands Cancer Institute and Oncode Institute have received a €10,6 million ERC Synergy Grant to develop innovative therapeutic approaches to target glioblastoma. This is a deadly primary brain tumour for which no curing…
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PhD candidates deserve special attention: their new confidential counsellor Annemarie Meijer explains why
She studied biology in Leiden and never left. Now, as Professor of Immunobiology, Annemarie Meijer has taken on the role of the new confidential counsell for for PhD candidates. It's a role that suits her perfectly: she has extensive experience in the research world and has guided dozens of PhD candidates.…
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Not wrapping but folding: Bacteria also organise their DNA (but they do it a bit differently)
Some bacteria, it turns out, have proteins much like ours that organise the DNA in their cells. They just do it a bit differently. This is revealed by new research from biochemists at the Leiden Institute of Chemistry and the Max Planck Institute for Biology. The discovery helps us better understand…
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Even a duck can parrot
That a parrot can copycat sounds is nothing new. But vocal learning is not common in animals. Researcher Carel ten Cate of the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL) of Leiden University has now discovered a duck species that can imitate sounds. ‘It started with an obscure reference about an Australian musk…
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Michelle Spierings aims for Klokhuis Wetenschapsprijs with musicality animals
Tapping to a rhythm, recognizing sound patterns and enjoying music: For people, it is common sense. But is this also the case for animals? It is the research topic of Michelle Spierings, a researcher at the Institute of Biology Leiden, and it is nominated for the Klokhuis Wetenschapsprijs.
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Improving the treatment of pathogenic fungi. ‘The process is working, but not that well…’
Fungi germinating in the lungs of patients. Doesn’t sound too nice, does it? Luckily, humans can deal with this normally, and we are able to clear the infection before anything comes to harm. However, in people with health issues, Aspergillosis can cause a lot of damage, especially if the fungus becomes…
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ERC Starting Grants for five young Leiden researchers
Five researchers from Leiden University have been awarded a Starting Grant by the European Research Council (ERC). This grant of on average 1.5m euros enables researchers who show potential to start their own project, lead a research team and implement their best ideas.
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A ‘lock’ to make genetic modification safer
Genetically modified organisms (GMOs) could be useful allies in the fight against critical environmental problems. Could because the use of GMOs is strictly regulated at the moment. A Leiden student team is now trying to make these GMOs safer with the aid of an ingenious lock.
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Ecologist Michiel Veldhuis is the Discoverer of the Year 2020
Michiel Veldhuis received the most public votes for the C.J. Kok Public Award and may therefore call himself Discoverer of the Year. Veldhuis researches how climate change affects savannah ecosystems in Africa and how we can protect them.
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New professor Luca Giomi creates his own physics of living systems
Swarms of drones, pedestrians or the cells in your body. Those are all examples of active matter: materials whose building blocks can move autonomously. That’s what Luca Giomi studies. Giomi has been appointed Professor of theoretical physics in the area of soft matter and biological physics at the…
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Multiple KHMW awards for science students
As many as seven first-year students from the Faculty of Science were honoured as young talents. In addition, the Royal Holland Society of Sciences and Humanities (KHMW) also lauded three master's students and an astronomy project during a vibrant ceremony on 28 November. Professor of Science Communication…
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Four projects awarded science communication grants
The Dutch Research Council (NWO) has rewarded four projects in which Leiden researchers are bringing science and society closer together. What are these projects?
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Jasper's Day
Jasper Knoester is the dean of the Faculty of Science. How is he doing, what exactly does he do and what does his day look like? In each newsletter, Jasper gives an insight into his life.
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Help your students: offer extra support with the skills platform
A new course is often challenging enough for students. But in addition to the new subject matter, they also face all kinds of additional challenges: how do I write a report, how do I find reliable sources, or how do I pitch a research proposal? The e-learning skills platform offers an online learning…
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Record number of registrations for PhD course microscopy
‘Microscopy is by far the least understood, most inefficiently operated, and the most abused of all laboratory instruments,’ reads the quote on the office wall of microscopy unit supporters Joost Willemse en Gerda Lamers. It describes exactly why the two developed the microscopy course for starting…
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Indonesian 'coffee plant' named after Leiden researcher
Research on Asian plants is his life's work. Now a crown is added to that: a plant from the coffee family bearing his name. Paul Kessler is LUF professor of botanical gardens and botany of South East Asia and Scientific Director of the Hortus botanicus. 'Completely unexpectedly, you get to see the results…
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How ‘sleeping’ microorganisms can determine the fate of a population
Microorganisms that temporarily ‘go to sleep’ play an important role in the evolution and survival of a population. Mathematician Shubhamoy Nandan conducted research on the effect of this characteristic called ‘dormancy’ in a novel mathematical model.
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Six Leiden researchers receive ERC Starting Grant
Six researchers from Leiden University have received an ERC starting grant. This grant of on average 1.5m euros will enable the researchers to launch their own project, form their own research team and develop their best ideas.
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Researchers tackle antibiotic-resistant bacteria
When a bacterium becomes more resistant to one antibiotic, it sometimes becomes more sensitive to another. To better understand this interaction, researchers from the Leiden Institute of Biology (IBL) and the Leiden Academic Center for Drug Research (LACDR) under supervision of Daniel Rozen and Coen…
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KHMW graduation prize for research on superconducting qubits
Matthias Flór receives the KHMW Graduation Prize in Theoretical Physics for his master's thesis. His research on exotic superconductors at Leiden University and TU Delft struck a chord with the jury. The jury unanimously chose to award Flór noting that ‘he demonstrated impressive technical abilities…
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Robo-bird teaches young zebra finches to sing
How do young zebra finches learn to sing? A research team led by researcher Katharina Riebel has developed a ‘RoboFinch’ to study just that. She and colleagues in the 'Seeing voices' research consortium have spent the past four years designing the robotic bird. And with success: young zebra finches…
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New professor Vedran Dunjko finds real-world problems that a quantum computer can solve
Vedran Dunjko appointed to full professor of quantum computing at Leiden University, the Netherlands.
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Supergenes make bizarre traits possible
Within the same species of butterfly many different wing patterns can occur. How is this possible? According to researchers Ben Wielstra and Emma Berdan, of the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL), the answer lies within supergenes. A supergene is a part of a chromosome that contains many strongly linked…
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PhD Graduate Van Groesen: ‘Nothing is too crazy to try.’
In a world where bacteria are increasingly resistant to antibiotics, Emma van Groesen set out to find a solution. This month she obtained her PhD, after four years of research into new variants of the antibiotic vancomycin. With success.
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Veni-grant for Michelle Spierings: ‘Do birds hear tick-tock too, or tock-tick?’
‘I did not expect to receive the grant, but it will make an amazing research possible,’ Michelle Spierings says. The researcher of the Institute of Biology Leiden (IBL) got awarded a Veni-grant of the Dutch Research Council (NWO).
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Can we live longer? Leiden physicist makes discovery in protective layer in genes
With the aid of physics and a minuscule magnet, researchers have discovered a new structure of telomeric DNA. Telomeres are sometimes seen as the key to living longer. They protect genes from damage but get a bit shorter each time a cell divides. If they become too short, the cell dies. The new discovery…
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Three awarded research projects in NWO-XS call
Cryogenic memories, antibiotic treatment for urinary tract infections and recycling plastic sustainably. These are the subjects of the three NWO-XS grants awarded to Leiden Science researchers.
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Biologist Carel ten Cate will now really retire. Right?
Pigeons, zebra finches and parakeets. Carel ten Cate studied bird sounds. But not just that. Together with linguists from Leiden, he investigated parallels between birdsong and language. On 9 June, his farewell symposium was held to mark the end of his broad career. Well, the end? Carel ten Cate has…
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Jasper's day
Jasper Knoester started on 1 January as our new dean. How is he finding it, what kinds of things is he doing and what does his day look like? In every newsletter Jasper gives us a peek into his life as dean.
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Grants to build large-scale research facilities
Five projects with researchers from Leiden University have received a grant from the Dutch Research Council (NWO) to build or upgrade existing research facilities.
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No venom resistance in snake-eating birds: ‘They just don’t need it’
To eat or get eaten. It describes the evolutionary race of snakes versus the mammals and birds that prey on these snakes. Muzaffar Ali Khan devoted his PhD to investigating the molecular mechanisms play of the evolutionary arms race, and has his promotion 16 February. What makes mammals and birds successful…
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Virtual preparation for lab practicals
How can we better prepare students for their practicals, so that they learn more from them? Marjo de Graauw and her colleagues want to renew science education. Together they will develop interactive teaching materials to introduce students to laboratory courses. They are receiving a SURF grant of €100,000…
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Leiden researchers join forces against tuberculosis
About one and a half million people worldwide die each year from tuberculosis. For thirty years, therapy with antibiotics has been the same, while it takes far too long and can lead to resistant pathogens. Leiden researchers from four institutes are now joining forces to develop more effective and efficient…
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New book to improve and promote science with citizens
The new open access book The Science of Citizen Science bundles insights into science that is conducted together with citizens, to promote this growing form of science.
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Cod behave differently in noisy environment
Underwater noise from seismic surveys affects the behaviour of Atlantic cod. These are the results of research by Leiden biologists in collaboration with colleagues from Belgium. During such surveys the fish are less active than usual and their circadian rhythm is disrupted; soon after exposure they…
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A call about: the Research Support Conference
What does research support involve? And what should we do to improve the support for researchers at the University? We spoke to Maribel Adame Valero, research policy officer and external cooperation coordinator at the Institute of Biology and a member of the Leiden Research Support (LRS) focus group.…