Promotor: H.P. Spaink, A.H. Meijer Co-promotor: R. Marin-Juez

The European Lead Factory has been created with the ultimate goal to develop lead drug candidates to address neglected diseases including bacterial infections, psychiatric disorders and oncology.

What is the function of the insect serosa?

The mycorrhizal symbiosis is among the most widespread species interactions on Earth⁠. This thesis focuses on orchid mycorrhiza, a unique mycorrhizal type that has caught scientists’ attention for centuries⁠.

The Plant BioDynamics Lab (PBDL) is a laboratory dedicated to experiments designed to develop and validate quantitative mathematical models of dynamical processes in biology. The principal objective of developing these models is to make quantitative predictions about these processes.

Can the (industrial) herbal extraction process be mathematically described and can this model be used to optimize the extraction in terms of quality and economical parameters?

Promotor: J.G.E.M. Fraaije, Co-Promotor: A. Kros

Promotor: D. Bouwmeester, Co-promotor: D. Kraft

PNEC-pro is a user-friendly screening tool for professionals dealing with the assessment of surface water quality. The tool calculates local, watertype specific no-effect concentrations (PNEC) of copper, lead, nickel, and zinc based on biotic ligand models (BLMs).

The Horizon 2020 project CoSTREAM aims to improve our understanding of the co-occurrence of stroke and Alzheimer’s disease. It has long been known that both diseases share underlying causes, but their exact interaction or link is not fully understood. CoSTREAM combines multiple factors to identify and…

Currently, the construction is underway for a large, covered bicycle parking facility with space for nearly 3000 bicycles. In the summer of 2024, the Gorlaeus bicycle parking will be ready for use.

According to the amyloid cascade hypothesis, accumulation of beta-amyloid (Aβ) peptides initiates the pathological cascade in Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Education in (Chinese) Medicinal Plants associated to the Hortus botanicus in Leiden - Which Traditional Chinese Medicinal plants can be grown in the Hortus? - Establishing of a database which Chinese medical plants are available in Dutch Botanical Gardens - Data validation (correct identification,…

Streptomyces are bacteria abundant in soil that participate in diverse and complex interactions. These bacteria are the main producers of the antibiotics we currently use in the clinic.

Bacteria often experience external challenges, such as changes in environmental conditions or attacks by bacteriophages.

Streptomyces bacteria are a valuable source of natural products, many of which are used in the clinic or in biotechnology.

Thermodynamics is one of the founding scientific pillars that has helped us better understand heat engines, biology, ecosystems, and even black holes. While it fundamentally describes large systems by examining the bulk behavior of their constituents, it is anchored in the statistical equivalence of…

Chemical-induced organ toxicity is a major concern in the development and use of chemicals, including drugs, pesticides, industrial chemicals and cosmetics. In the last decades, the onset and progression of chemical-induced organ toxicity has been linked amongst others to perturbation of mitochondri…

Do objectively correct solutions to ethical dilemmas exist? Or is ethics always a matter of your opinion against my opinion? How do you know what to do? What kind of thing is ethics anyway? Can you be an expert in ethics?

In this thesis, a system pharmacology approach, integrating metabolomics, pharmacology and chemical biology, was applied to understand and modulate the endocannabinoid system across different model systems (cells, zebrafish, mice and humans).

The predication of the effect (efficiency and toxicity) of a drug in a patient is very important in (i) clinical decision support and (ii) the development of novel drug treatments. We apply our technology and methods to find biomarkers for key disease pathways and toxicity in clinical studies and in…

Research projects

The applications of studying the early development of insects range from agriculture to material science.

Promotor: M. Ubbink, Co-promotor: G. Siegal

Viral hemorrhagic fever (VHF) is a group of acute diseases caused by highly infectious viruses including Ebola, Lassa, Dengue viruses. Its high mortality rate poses high risk to public health, however, studies on VHF have been hampered due to the non-availability of proper models and incomplete knowledge…

The research of the Applied Mathematics cluster is concerned with such diverse topics as dynamical systems, representation theory, differential equations and pattern recognition.

Can we link multiple components from herbal extracts with their biological activities?

This Thesis focuses on the design and synthesis of ADP-ribosylated compounds that can be applied in biological studies.

The specialisation Science Communication and Society (SCS) concerns science communication in a broad sense. The program focuses on the link between science and society and covers knowledge and skills in the field of science communication.

The Leiden University-European Center for Chinese Medicine and Natural Compounds (LUECCM) is a virtual research Centre bringing together research projects of many different researchers from different origin.

School of pharmaceutical sciences, University of Geneva - Switzerland

This project aims to assess the risk of spread of antimicrobial resistance genes in the environment derived from currently used synthetic biology approaches in the field of drug discovery.

What are the differences between the trade in Chinese herbal drugs in Europe between 1800 and now? Can we see the major metabolic changes after 200 yours?

Systems pharmacology aims to apply techniques from systems biology to pharmacological models.

Promotor: H.S. Overkleeft, J. Neefjes, Co-promotor: M. van der Stelt

Single-molecule spectroscopy has become a powerful method for using organic fluorescent molecules in numerous applications.

Inverse problems are problems where we want to estimate the values of certain parameters of a system given observations of the system. Such problems occur in several areas of science and engineering. Inverse problems are often ill-posed, which means that the observations of the system do not uniquely…

Can we establish a new quality control system for herbal medicines that is based on bioactivity rather than a few abundant chemicals?

Electron microscopy has become an extremely important techniquein a wide variety of elds.

Promotores: W. Th. F. den Hollander, M.O. Heydenreich

FIJI is one of the most used image analysis tools in the world. FIJI stands for FIJI is just ImageJ, it is however much more.

Leiden University offers you several services related to career orientation and job application skills.

Completing your Master’s in Biology gives you an internationally recognised degree which you can follow up with a PhD track. With your acquainted skills, you’re a much requested professional in and outside research.

Leiden University offers you several services related to career orientation and job application skills.

Leiden University offers you several services related to career orientation and job application skills.

With an MSc in Biology you are well prepared for future jobs in research or industry. After your graduation you can pursue a PhD career or a career as a researcher, focusing on groundbreaking research on sustainability, at universities and research institutes.

Do you have questions about the Astronomy master’s programme? Please contact us.

The two-year Bioinformatics programme (120 EC) includes mandatory core courses and electives, as well as a Master's Thesis Research Project.

The Astronomy and SCS specialisation consists of 120 European Credit Transfer System (EC) points and consists of an astronomy component (60 - 80 EC) and a science communication component (40 - 60 EC).