Surface plasmons (SPs) are surface waves at the interface between a dielectric and a good metal, and are formed by the interaction between light and the free electrons at the metal-dielectric interface. They provide strong field confinement for optical fields, opening new possibilities for enhanced…

The Department of Biophysical Structural Chemistry studies how biological systems work at the molecular level through high-resolution structural analysis. Using state-of-the-art techniques in structural biology such as cryo-electron microscopy and X-ray crystallography we gain crucial insights into…

When combined and used by specific people located in time and place, words can express something more than, different from, or even the opposite of their dictionary meanings.

Promotor: T. Schmidt

Gibbs processes, g-measures, fuzzy Gibbs states

The effective treatment of tuberculosis (TB) remains a major challenge to global health.

Tonal bilinguals of two closely related Chinese dialects are amazing people. They handle two tonal systems in their mind; their two vocabularies are from closely related dialects, and they write translation equivalents with common Chinese characters. Their unique language situation makes their mind…

What is the role of the noradrenergic system in human cognition?

Inactivating mutations in BRCA1 or BRCA2 genes predispose to several types of cancer.

This dissertation set out to provide both an integrated framework for the practices of teacher peer feedback and an in-depth understanding of teacher peer feedback in the Chinese vocational education context.

Ruixuan Chen defended his theses on 16 October 2018.

The programme structure of the specialization International Criminal Law can be found on this page. The programme consists of several courses.

The master’s specialisation Evolutionary Biology at Leiden University investigates biology at all levels. The specialisation includes genomics, functional developmental genetics, paleobiology, behavioral biology and evolutionary ecology.

Promotores: Prof.dr. A.G.G.M. Tielens & Prof.dr. L. Kaper (UvA)

Almost all languages of Europe and of a large part of western Asia belong to a single language family, which is called Indo-European, and which includes modern languages like English, Dutch, Russian, Farsi, but also ancient ones like Ancient Greek, Latin, Hittite and Sanskrit.

You will develop an understanding of the interconnectedness between the world economy, international law, justice, war and how peace might become more prevalent.

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…

During the period 500–1000 CE Egypt was successively part of the Byzantine, Persian and Islamic empires. All kinds of events, developments and processes occurred that would greatly affect its history and that of the eastern Mediterranean in general. This is the first volume to map Egypt's position in…

In this thesis, bioorthogonal chemistry is combined with correlative light-electron microscopy to selectively label and study pathogenic intracellular bacteria within the host immune cell.

Atherosclerosis is a chronic inflammatory disease affecting millions of people world-wide.

Galaxies are environments where gas coalesces, cools, and is converted into stars. However, it remains unclear the exact mechanisms through which galaxies acquire, redistribute and lose their gas.

High-angular-resolution observations of the circumstellar material have uncovered numerous and very diverse substructures in protoplanetary discs, raising the question of whether they are caused by forming planets or other mechanisms.

How do mycobacteria subvert the defenses of host immune cells?

Complaints against decisions not to prosecute in socially sensitive issues.

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.

The human body consists of hundreds, perhaps thousands of different types of cells, each with different morphologies and functions, despite having the same genome.

Labbe

We report new computational and experimental evidence of an efficient and astrochemically relevant formation route to formaldehyde (H2CO). This simplest carbonylic compound is central to the formation of complex organics in cold interstellar clouds and is generally regarded to be formed by the hydrogenation…

The aim of this research is to define the relationship between sources of articulation for different kinds of instrument in the period between the beginning of XVI century (first extant indications) and the end of XVIII century.

There is a need for alternative methods to replace, reduce and refine (3R) animal experimentation. Combining experimental data from high-throughput in vitro studies with in silico modeling is a promising approach to unravel the effect of chemicals on living cells and to gain a better understanding of…

Neurobiological, cognitive and behavioural measurements of normal and abnormal child development.

The corona crisis is also a disinformation crisis for the global community in general, and for the European Union (EU) in particular. What is less clear is how adequate the EU’s response to the ‘infodemic’ has been. This essay exposes the dangers of disinformation for the EU, which have intensified…

The studies presented in the work show the potential of the integrative use of biophysical data in defining the structural basis of protein interactions.

How do humans control their thoughts and actions, and what can high-field brain scanning reveal about the underlying processes?

Beyond Empires explores the complexity of empire building from the point of view of self-organized networks, rather than from the point of view of the central state.

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

Mission: The Environmental Biology department aims to increase the scientific understanding of how current and emerging anthropogenic threats affect biodiversity and ecosystem services. Through this understanding they facilitate strategic management of natural resources by addressing urgent challenges…

Yuxi Nie defended her thesis on 15 October 2019.

The Role and Effectiveness of the G20. In this article, published in The Changing Global Order part of the United Nations University Series on Regionalism book series, author Jaroslaw Kantorowicz discusses the evolution of the G20.

Hydrogen fuel cells are expected to be pivotal in the energetic transition towards renewable energy sources such as solar and wind power. However, their industrial scalability is severely hindered by the high cost and degradation rate of platinum catalysts, one of their key components. Addressing this…

Four different astronomical societies are active in the Old Observatory. We are very proud of the commitment these associations show to organize activities.

To be able to identify, slow down and reverse functional deterioration in the elderly to give them more years of good health.

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…

This ecological community has long been known to affect host biology, and their diverse roles have been further clarified in recent years following numerous studies of animal:microbiota interactions in diverse systems.

The aim of this thesis was to develop novel treatment strategies for different types of eye melanoma utilizing zebrafish models. We first establish orthotopic and ectopic xenograft models for uveal and conjunctival melanoma by engraftment of the immortalized cells derived from these tumors into zebrafish…

Stakeholder engagement practices are on the rise in regulatory governance. This raises an important question regarding implications for regulatory legitimacy. Engagement mechanisms are not by default legitimizing: Even when initiated to tap into an array of ‘benevolent’ desiderata, unless carefully…

The Future of Multilateralism addresses current challenges and future perspectives of international and regional organizations. It aims to uncover how stable the foundations of global cooperation really are, particularly in the light of the latest unilateral and protectionist practices of international…

The word ¨pyroptosis¨ can be understood as ¨fiery falling¨, which describes the bursting of pro-inflammatory signals from the dying cell. Our observations indicate that pyroptosis also ¨spreads like wildfire¨ and once a cell dies via pyroptotic cell death, neighbouring cells are more prone to die as…

How the global distribution of vegetation stands dominated by arbuscular and ectomycorrhizal plants relate to principle aspects of belowground carbon accumulation processes?

Membrane fusion is a vital process in living organisms and is mediated by zipper-like proteins.