Spitting cobra venom composition has been influenced by defensive behaviour according to an international research team. This may have originated from the arrival of human ancestors. Students at the Institute of Biology Leiden made an important contribution to the study. Publication in Science on 22…

An international research team consisting of Katharina Riebel as leading PI and two international collaborators were awarded a Human Frontier Science Program grant for their proposal ‘Seeing voices’: the role of multimodal cues in vocal learning.

Fishes rely heavily on sound to find their way during migration or dispersal. Many species are affected by noise pollution. Hans Slabbekoorn from the Institute of Biology Leiden received a HORIZON2020 grant of 500,000 euros to study the impact of sound conditions on movement decisions of fishes.

Leiden Biology student Lukas Kiefer has won the Unilever Research Prize 2018 for his research into efficient production of a new antibiotic. Kiefer: ‘I want to make biological medicines available to people in need.'

Historic and iconic yet expensive and cold. It’s with mixed feelings that the university is leaving the Gravensteen building, which dates back to the 12th century. How was it to work and study in this former Leiden prison?

NWO has awarded a Vidi subsidy to a total of 89 young and innovative researchers. Leiden researchers have won twelve of these subsidies and three subsidies have gone to the LUMC. Each researcher will receive up to 800,000 euro to develop a particular research theme or to set up a research group.

Current means of fighting bacteria are no longer as good as they used to be because of antibiotic resistance. These days, people are dying from bacterial infections that could have been cured fifty years ago.

'What do people do with snake venom?' That's the question 11-year-old Joep asked in Dutch TV show Willem Wever. Leiden Professor of Evolutionary developmental zoology and snake venom expert Michael Richardson answers the question in his laboratory.

This weekend, the very sad news reached us that former employee Peter Hovenkamp died during an excursion in Malaysia. He was surprised by a flash flood in a cave in Gunung Mulu National Park.

Gilles van Wezel has been reappointed as Scientific Director at the Leiden Institute of Biology (IBL). Van Wezel has been director of this institute since September 2018 and will remain so until 1 September 2026.

What role do the soil and soil organisms play in the restoration of nature quality? This is what researchers at Leiden University are going to find out, together with water company and nature manager Dunea. They will do this by inoculating soil, whether or not sterilized, with soil and seeds. On Friday…

The new S&RBB minor turned out to be rather popular. Together with the master applicants for the Fundamentals course, S&RBB started with 71 new students, the highest number ever.

A team of students from Leiden University, TU Delft and Rotterdam University won a golden medal during the International Genetically Engineered Machine competition (iGEM) in November in Boston. Their project ELECTRACE concerned a bacterium that can be used to search for landmines.

The new CML minor Sustainable Development started on Monday 7 September 2009 with an official opening by the Vice-Rector Prof. Rietje van Dam.

The League of European Research Universities (LERU) calls for greater appreciation of fundamental research that does not have an immediate application. A working group headed by Geert de Snoo, dean of the Leiden Faculty of Science, issued a memorandum on the subject on 29 August.

Behavioural biologist Wouter Halfwerk has been awarded a 2-year outgoing Rubicon-grant from NWO. He will be working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute with bats and frogs to understand the evolution of multimodal communication.

'A spectacular new Philippine monitor lizard reveals a hidden biogeographic boundary and a novel flagship species for conservation' . CML-researcher Merlijn van Weerd has participated in a new article in Biology Letters about this discovery.

Plants not only sense when they are touched, but they can also adapt to it. For example, by strengthening or defending themselves. But how do plants do this? The Green TE (Green Tissue Engineering) consortium has been granted a Gravitation grant of almost 23 million euros to investigate exactly this…

Hans de Iongh, associate professor at the Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML), was named 'Officier in de Orde van Oranje Nassau' on Thursday 27 October. His work on the prevention of lion extinction in Africa was one of the reasons for this award.

The VPRO children’s television show Beestieboys visited the Philippine crocodile project of the Mabuwaya Foundation. Presenters Tim and Nicolaas met CML researcher Merlijn van Weerd, who is director of the Mabuwaya Foundation. They joined him on a crocodile night survey and during a school lecture on…

Biologist Freek Vonk had already appeared in the Time Warp programme, where he was shown milking a snake for its venom, which he needed for his doctoral research. On Friday 18 September, he explained his fascination for snakes to Matthijs van Nieuwkerk in ‘De wereld draait door’, a Dutch news and entertainment…

PURPOSE: Determine the effect of minute quantities of sub-visible aggregates on the in vitro immunogenicity of clinically relevant protein therapeutics.

Daniela Kraft speaks to Academic Stories about self-assembling soft matter, nanorobots, the importance of female rodels in science, and the unique freedom and support that Leiden University provides.

Gerard van Westen (LACDR/division of medicinal chemistry) has been awarded with a VENI grant from NWO, the Dutch Research Council.

Recently the WTO panel report on India – Solar Cells (DS 456) was distributed. Under India’s Jawaharlal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM), solar power developers were required to use certain types of solar cells and modules manufactured in India for power generation projects in order to ultimately…

Professor Amir Zadpoor is developing biomaterials, and engaging in 3D, 4D, and bioprinting. 'Collaboration and regular contact with clinicians serve as a sanity check for all our ideas.'

In the field of metabolomics, capillary electrophoresis-mass spectrometry (CE-MS) has become a very useful analytical technique for the profiling of highly polar and charged metabolites in biological samples. In order to highlight the unique features of CE-MS for metabolomics studies, Dr. Rawi Ramautar…

Protein chains typically fold to function. Folding is a complex process and if done correctly leads to a unique functional fold topology for a given protein chain. Other topologies are also possible but are often non-functional or toxic. These misfolded proteins are then unfolded and subsequently refolded…

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Seven Leiden professors have been elected as members of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW). In total 23 new members will be inaugurated on Monday 13 September.

In the search for new medicines against diseases such as cancer, a Leiden team has developed a new workflow. This approach combines artificial intelligence (AI) with molecular modelling and is suitable for finding unknown and innovative drug structures, the researchers proved.

An impressive speech by Dean Jasper Knoester, a lecture by top researcher Mario van der Stelt about brain messengers, and the presentation of the faculty awards. 2025 begins on a hopeful and festive note, with a toast to a year of fruitful collaboration within and beyond the faculty.

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Curiosity is the driving force behind the research of ecologist Michiel Veldhuis. The associate professor investigates ecosystems in relation to climate change in the savannahs of Africa. More and more, he is also looking at social factors such as the influence of population growth. The KNAW rewards…

In 2018, the Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML), born out of activism, exists for forty years. The institute celebrated this on 28 June in the Stadsgehoorzaal in Leiden. In the morning, proud directors and researchers looked back and forth. After this several experts discussed the current environmental…

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Over the past year, many of our staff and students have won prizes, been awarded a substantial grant or been appointed to an academic association or a position in public life. All of these are good reasons to include them in our 2019 Hall of Fame. We are proud of them all.

The government is investing 646 million euros and has set aside a further 3.5 billion to drive economic growth in the Netherlands. Much of the National Growth Fund will be used for scientific innovations. Leiden University is involved in three of the projects.

How can rare and expensive materials be used more efficiently to produce cleaner and cheaper fuel? Under the guidance of Marc Koper, Professor of Catalysis and Surface Chemistry, international teams of scientists have published 3 articles in Nature Communications.

Understanding the proces of electrochemical reactions is essential to improve the technology for the energy transition. Fuel cell cars, for example use hydrogen produced from the electrolysis of water. Mariana Monteiro did fundamental research on the process and won two prizes with her thesis.

Two Leiden Science researchers received an NWO-XS grant for their research. Both projects are highly promising, but also high-risk. Macrophages that trap bacteria and data storage made from 2D materials convinced the board of their potential.

For the first time researchers have succeeded in placing a layer of graphene on top of a stable fatty lipid monolayer. Surrounded by a protective shell of lipids, graphene could enter the body and function as a versatile sensor. The results are the first step towards such a shell, and have been published…

Leiden theoretical physicists have proven that not only the genetic information in DNA determines who we are, but also DNA’s mechanics. Helmut Schiessel and his group simulated many DNA sequences and found a correlation between mechanical cues and the way DNA is folded. Publication in PLoS One.

Agressief gedrag van gedetineerden is sterk te verlagen met een aantal aanpassingen in het dagelijkse regime in penitentiaire inrichtingen. Dit blijkt uit de evaluatie van een experiment met een alternatief detentieregime, uitgevoerd door Tilburg University en de Universiteit Leiden.

Research of the Leiden Institute of Chemistry into the development of a sustainable fuel cell has accidentally resulted in an exceptionally efficient catalyst for the production of hydrogen peroxide. The catalyst, discovered by Dennis Hetterscheid and PhD candidate Michiel Langerman, may lead to a more…

Genes predict whether you have a propensity for an illness but environmental factors often have the last word: nutrition, air pollution, lifestyle, stress. The exposome as both culprit and chance. Large-scale research is being carried out into this at Leiden. Thomas Hankemeier, Professor of Analytical…

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After years of lobbying by environmental activists, a deposit scheme for small plastic bottles is to be introduced on 1 July 2021. One of the leaders in the fight is alumnus Merijn Tinga. The university will have collection points for plastic bottles and is also supporting the Plastic Spotter citizen…

Leiden biology students have determined the origin of exotic alpine newts in the Netherlands using a special DNA technique.