PhD defence

What is the most effective way to eliminate tumour cells? The DNA repair mechanism could play an important role in increasing the effectiveness of chemotherapy in the fight against cancerous cells. If we are to influence this mechanism, we need fundamental knowledge about how the mechanism works.

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

Vitelli

What are 'defects' and mechanical properties of mosaics of different shapes of tiles?

What are the mechanics of soft materials (e.g. foam, sand)?

Cryptographer Max Fillinger developed new methods to analyse a group of algorithms called commitments schemes. These schemes are building blocks for cryptographic protocols, which enable multiple parties that do not trust each other to work together safely. His PhD Defence is on 19 March.

Mechanical forces are known to play an important role in bacterial colonies. In this dissertation, we study the self-organization at various stages of growing bacterial colonies, and focus on the mechanical effects of cell growth.

The master’s programme Physics at Leiden University offers a wide range of specialisations from theoretical research to cosmology. You will be trained for a career in research or for a more practical-oriented specialisation. The programme offers a wide choice of individual study paths that take into…

PhD defence

Science, Leiden Institute of Physics (LION)

The following master research projects are currently open in the Bouwmeester group.

Every year, the Leiden Institute of Physics (LION) organises the Science Day. The goal is to highlight the newest research at LION, to socialise, and to welcome first year master students and new PhD candidates to our institute.

On Friday 28 October, Leiden University organized its annual Physics Ladies Day for female high school students. To mark this festive day, we put the spotlight on four female researchers, who talk about their experiences in physics.

Lecture

Lecture

This Thursday, January 18th 2024, our esteemed colleague Jan Zaanen passed away. Jan was one of our star scientists, larger than life, with an unabashed, boisterous drive for the best of physics at the Institute Lorentz, at the Leiden Institute of Physics and in the full international scientific community.…

Promotor: Prof.dr. H.P. Spaink, Co-promotor: Prof.dr. A.H. Meijer

Children with autism spectrum disorder experience serious challenges in social functioning, which threatens their development in many areas of functioning.

An overview of awards and prizes granted to our staff and students in 2019, as well as special appointments and royal distinctions.

Fundamental understanding of molecular reactions on metal surfaces is important for improving heterogeneous catalysis.

Promotors: Prof.dr. J. Zaanen, Prof.dr.ir. H. Hilgenkamp

The first book ever on information-theoretically secure multiparty computation

We develop open micro cavities to trap light in small volumes and thereby increase the interaction with intra-cavity emitters. Important aspects in this development are the optical penetration in the mirrors, coupling between optical modes, and scattering and clipping losses.

Working for a top faculty? Discover the vacancies at the Faculty of Science and apply immediately.

Many important topics in computer science, such as the correctness of software, the efficiency of algorithms and the modeling of complicated systems, depend on sound theoretical underpinnings. In the Theory group, we study these fundamental building blocks and develop verification methods to prove system…

A Josephson junction is a device where a thin insulating barrier or a nanostructure is placed between two superconducting leads. Such a junction is essential to superconducting qubits that store quantum information due to its anharmonic spectrum.

Our research examines mental health risk and resilience in young people. We do so by integrating cultural, social, cognitive and neurobiological factors and their interactions.

Open online education has become a highly popular method of education. The current project aims to further our knowledge of how open online courses can be best designed to be consistent with human learning mechanics and facilitate meaningful learning.

In order to be able to develop effective medicine and treatments to prevent or cure autoimmune diseases or cancer we need to understand the mechanisms how they arise and what drives their course.Unravelling the fundamental molecular mechanisms influencing the onset and course of diseases such as allergies,…

Due to their central physiological roles in living organisms, retaining beta-glycosidases have been the subject of tremendous research efforts to examine their structure/function relation using numerous biophysical and biochemical approaches.

PhD defence

Leiden University celebrated its 444th anniversary with a historical procession on 8 February. It celebrated this year’s Dies Natalis in time-honoured fashion with a ceremony in the Pieterskerk, but broke with tradition by sending professors out to primary schools.

On Thursday 9 november, Reijer Passchier defended his dissertation 'Informal constitutional change'. His supervisor is Professor Wim Voermans.

This thesis focuses on the development of sample-preparation methods for small amounts of samples and applying the developed methods to muscle tissues to investigate the mechanisms involved in sarcopenia.

Is there a causal mechanism underlying the decision to attack another country when on the brink of war? If so, does this mechanism differ between regime-types? Political scientist Femke Bakker (Leiden University) addresses this question from a political psychological and comparative perspective and…

Epithelial-mesenchymal plasticity (EMP) and tumor cell migration play an important role in cancer progression, and an improved understanding of the mechanisms underlying these concepts is essential for developing new targeted approaches.

In a typical glycosylation reaction, a donor is activated to form a (variety of) electrophilic species which can react with a nucleophilic acceptor, following a reaction mechanism having both SN1 and SN2 character.

The availability of complete plant genome sequences together with the ever increasing amount of data on the molecular, cellular and physiological mechanisms of plant development require mathematical and computational models to obtain a complete overview of and generate new insights into the quantitative…

What are the social and neural mechanisms that contribute to fluctuations in self-esteem in healthy adolescents and adolescents with depression?

The genetic information of all living organisms is contained in their DNA. Cells modify the degree of DNA compaction by epigenetics, which largely determines what genes are read out and which genes are transcriptionally silent.

Glycosidases (GHs) are enzymes responsible for the degradation of carbohydrates and play many roles in human health and pathophysiology. Often, abnormal levels of glycosidase activity are markedly linked to human pathologies.

How do we process language and speech? How do we integrate information at different levels – intonation, sentence structure, meaning, tone, words, sounds - and how does information at one level interact with information at another level?

Evolution & Biodiversity is one of the four research themes of the Institute of Biology Leiden.

During the early modern period, many medieval manuscripts were cut up into strips of parchment which were reused to reinforce the bindings of newly printed books. Until recently, these reused pieces of medieval manuscripts only came to light when the early modern book binding was damaged and/or subjected…

Adenosine is an endogenous ligand which exerts its action by activating adenosine receptors (ARs), while its circulating levels are controlled via a variety of mechanism and proteins, amongst others the equilibrative nucleoside transporters (ENTs).

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.

Research in the group Clinical Neurodevelopmental Sciences is focused on understanding and influencing developmental mechanisms in children and adolescents.