762 search results for “genetics” in the Public website
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New cellular imaging paves way for cancer treatment
A new technique using fluorescent imaging to track the actions of enzymes might aid drug design for new anti-cancer, inflammation and kidney disease treatments. Researchers at the University of York and Leiden University have published these findings in Nature Chemical Biology.
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Developing new therapies to fight muscle disease
Biophysicist Alireza Mashaghi and his collaborators are taking up the fight against muscular dystrophy: genetic disorders that cause muscle weakness. They want to inhibit the clumping of proteins that results in toxic aggregates. For this, the team receives 550,000 euros from Health Holland. The team…
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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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Newly discovered plant species store manganese in leaves
Leiden scientists have discovered a new plant genus with two new species at a potential nickel mine site in Indonesia. Remarkable characteristic of the plants: they store manganese in their leaves.
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Erik van Kampen publishes in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology: The effects of poor eating habits persist even after diet
New research published in the Journal of Leukocyte Biology suggests that these changes to the behavior of the immune system are persistent and can continue even after diet is improvedAlmost everyone knows that improving your eating habits will most likely improve your health. What most people may not…
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Growth differences during twin pregnancy have effect later in life
A child who receives fewer nutrients in the womb than their identical twin brother or sister is more likely to have developmental problems later in life. This is what researchers from the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) write in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health. This study shows that unfavourable…
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The QSPainRelief consortium will improve the treatment of chronic pain
The €6.24 million EU-funded research project QSPainRelief has kicked off. The project aims to help patients suffering from chronic pain with novel, personalised combinational treatments and is coordinated by Elizabeth de Lange from the Leiden Academic Center for Drug Research.
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DNA as a supramolecular building block
PhD student Willem Noteborn has investigated supramolecular structures. These can be useful for the loading of medicines and signalling molecules regarding, for example, cellular differentiation. In his thesis, he describes the functioning of these structures.
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Vincent Niochet investigates intercultural connectivity in the deep past with an NWO PhDs in the Humanities grant
For already two years, Vincent Niochet has been affiliated with the Leiden Faculty of Archaeology as an external PhD candidate. Now, he has been awarded an NWO PhDs in the Humanities grant, allowing him to continue his research as a paid PhD staff member. ‘The past two years have been quite challenging,…
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Most species-rich coral reefs are not necessarily protected
Coral reefs throughout the world are under threat. After studying the reefs in Malaysia, Zarinah Waheed concluded that there is room for improvement in coral reef conservation. PhD defence 22 November.
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How a pathogenic bacterium searches for food
Bacteria whirl around in the mouths of most people, forming dental plaques and sometimes causing nasty gum infections. Treponema denticola might be a dangerous pathogen, but not much is known about this bacterium. It was up to Ariane Briegel and her research group to change that.
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Embryos of the bitterling perform a somersault. This teaches us something new about natural selection
Even embryos can become embroiled in an evolutionary arms race with another species. Leiden biologists demonstrate this with larvae of the rosy bitterling that parasitize the gills of freshwater mussels. They published their research on February 19 in PNAS.
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International students start a master’s thanks to a LExS
This academic year 49 promising international students will start their master’s degree here thanks to a Leiden University Excellence Scholarship (LExS). The students, all from outside the EU, were welcomed in a special ceremony on 5 September. Who are they?
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Aggressiveness of cancer cells halted
Zebrafish-human communication shows that cancer cells lacking a signaling protein are less able to develop aggressive metastatic properties. This discovery has been made by molecular cell biologist Claudia Tulotta. PhD defence 14 June.
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Researchers reveal how stem cells make decisions
Embryonic stem cells have the remarkable ability to develop into any type of cell. On their way to become for example a liver or a heart cell, they must repeatedly decide between alternative developmental paths. How they make these decisions is largely unknown. An international team of biophysicists…
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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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Experimental drug BIA 10-2474 deactivates proteins in human nerve cells
At high doses, drug candidate BIA 10-2474 binds not only to the protein that it targets, but to other proteins as well. It thus deactivates proteins that are involved in the metabolism of nerve cells. This is what an international group of researchers from Leiden University and Erasmus MC, among others,…
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Brain changes underlying social anxiety: numbers count!
In a recent mega-analysis, researchers from Leiden University aimed to clarify the contradictory findings of research into social anxiety disorder. They found that to obtain reliable research results having the largest possible sample size is important. Publication in NeuroImage:Clinical.
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Sea sponges may seem like simple creatures, but…
One of them turned out to be two thousand years old. And older giant barrel sponges appear to have a faster rate of cell division, unlike us. They produce antibiotics and much, much more. Lina Bayona Maldonado studied how the differences in such factors as age or oceanic depth affect the production…
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It is a myth that boys lag behind in brain development
It is true that girls perform better at school than boys, but this is not due to differences in brain development. This is the conclusion psychobiologist Lara Wierenga draws from a recent study. Publication in the Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience.
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Communication about quantum technology offers many opportunities (but there are risks too)
Watching and analysing hundreds of TEDx talks, that too can be research. That becomes clear from the work of PhD student Aletta Meinsma, who is studying potential problems in popular communication about quantum technologies. She explains how she approaches this and why it is so important.
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Personal chair in ‘Stress-related psychopathology’ for Bernet Elzinga
Clinical psychologist Bernet Elzinga has been appointed as Professor of a personal chair at the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences. This professorship will contribute both nationally and internationally to the broader promotion of Leiden University in the field of stress and psychopathology.
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Four bold Faculty of Science researchers receive NWO XS grants
Four scientists from the Faculty of Science will receive a grant of up to 50,000 euros in the Open Competition Domain Science - XS from science financier NWO. This category emphatically strives to encourage curiosity-driven and bold research involving a relatively quick analysis of a promising idea.…
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Junius Symposium: exciting new research on Old Germanic studies
While Old Germanic studies might seem dated and, regrettably, occupies a less than secure position in various academic institutions, exciting new research presented by young researchers shows that the field is still vibrant and may have a bright future. On Thursday, the 7th of April, the ‘Junius Symposium…
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Fungi add flavour to vanilla
Fungi living in vanilla plants play a role in the development of the taste and smell of vanilla, according to Shahnoo Khoyratty of the Institute of Biology Leiden. PhD defence on 27 October.
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Ineke Sluiter receives Academy Professor Prize
Ineke Sluiter, Professor of Greek Language and Literature, has been awarded the Academy Professor Prize by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). According to the jury, Sluiter is exceptional in her ability to connect issues from antiquity with the broad themes of the present day…
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Is it possible to avoid dehydration? Gene promotes wood formation
‘It was a discovery we did not expect,’ says Remko Offringa, professor of Plant developmental genetics. Today he publishes a new trait of a versatile gene in Current Biology: it makes the difference in plants between herbaceous and woody stem growth. A useful feature to prevent dehydration.
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Three Leiden scientists receive NWO ENW-KLEIN grant for innovative research
The origins of Surinamese rice, a digital twin of the Earth and a large big-data project in the Chilean sky: three Leiden scientists receive an ENW-KLEIN grant for innovative, fundamental research.
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How did Proto-Indo-European reach Asia?
Five thousand years before the common era (BCE), Proto-Indo-European, the mother of many languages that are spoken today in Europe, Central Asia and South Asia, originated in eastern Europe. PhD candidate Axel Palmér has combined a 175-year-old hypothesis with new techniques to demonstrate how descendants…
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A ‘pygmy‘ language - myth or reality?
Lecture, Language & the Human Past Lecture Series
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Lecture by geneticist David Reich about the spread of the Indo-European languages
Lecture
- IBL Spotlight - Evolution and Biodiversity
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How do you help a child suffering from depression?
What causes depression in a child and how can they get over it? Leiden Professor of Psychology Bernet Elzinga and behavioural scientist Carine Kielstra recently hosted a webinar on the subject of depression in teenagers. The level of interest was overwhelming.
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Veni grants for 19 young Leiden researchers
Nineteen researchers who have recently been awarded their PhD are to receive a Veni grant of up to 250,000 euros. Science funding agency NWO has awarded a total of 158 Venis in this round; Leiden University's share of the awards is 12 percent.
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LCCP Lecture The Social Dimension of Critical Phenomenology
Lecture
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Prediction of contralateral breast cancer - Statistical aspects and performance assessment
PhD defence
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IBL Spotlights - Development & Disease
Lecture
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Discourse in contact: an areal study of wish formulae in Daghestan
Lecture, LUCL Colloquium - Series '24/'25
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Hall of Fame 2020
In 2020, many of our staff and students have again won prestigious prizes and been awarded important research subsidies.
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Alor-Pantar languages: origins and theoretical impact
This research project focuses on the extended documentation and investigation of these non-Austronesian (‘Papuan’) languages.
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In the Media
Our research regularly receives attention in the (Dutch) popular media. Here is an overview.
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Interdisciplinary research and teaching at Leiden University
Many of the challenges of our time are too complex to be resolved within the confines of a single discipline. Leiden University is a broad-based university where an incredible number of research fields converge. That makes us the ideal breeding ground for, and practitioners of, interdisciplinary research…
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Evolution and development of orchid flowers and fruits
PhD defence
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Rights Denied, Heritage Stolen
PhD defence
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First patient in the Netherlands successfully treated with stem cell gene therapy
Researchers from the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) have successfully used stem cell gene therapy to treat a baby with the severe congenital immune disorder SCID. An important milestone: it is the first time stem cell gene therapy of Dutch origin has been administered to a patient, and also…
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2012 Two major NWO subsidies for language research in Leiden
Professor Johan Rooryck will be examining cognition and core knowledge systems and how possession is expressed in different languages. Rooryck and fellow researchers have been awarded two NWO grants totalling 2.75 million euro to carry out two research programmes: 'Knowledge and Culture' and 'Lend me…
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Artificial intelligence helps in the search for new antibiotics
With the search for new antibiotics becoming increasingly urgent, artificial intelligence offers valuable help. Smart software developed by Leiden PhD candidate Alexander Kloosterman searched genomes of bacteria and found clusters of DNA that code for proteins that have an antibiotic effect. ‘This new…
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‘Look beyond your own discipline’
Good research means looking beyond disciplinary boundaries, said Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry Remus Dame in his inaugural lecture on 10 May. Processes that take place on DNA shouldn’t only be researched in a test tube but also in living cells, for instance.
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Niko Tinbergen lecture 2019: Stem cells, mini organs and eternal life
Three speakers, three fascinating science stories and a well-filled lecture hall. The Niko Tinbergen Lecture had a successful restart on 10 December 2019.
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Three new professors for the Leiden Institute of Chemistry
With Sylvestre Bonnet, Jeroen Codée and Remus Dame, the Leiden Institute of Chemistry (LIC) will be getting no less than three new professors. Bonnet will become professor in Bioinorganic Chemistry, Codée professor in Organic Chemistry and Dame professor in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry.