The bacterial cell wall is a nearly universal structure that offers protection and gives the cell its shape. However, environmental stressors, such as cell wall-targeting antibiotics and hyperosmotic conditions, can induce bacteria to shift to a wall-deficient state. It is unknown whether the lack of…

To study how planetary systems come into existence we study much younger systems still in formation.

This work describes the use of click-to-release chemistry to get spatiotemporal control over immunocytokine activity. Until now, immunocytokines (cytokines coupled to a tumor-targeting-moiety) remained active throughout the body, being able to bind their respective receptors, causing mild to severe…

This dissertation explores how Large Language Models (LLMs) can effectively and responsibly contribute to complex decision-making processes. By combining AI and human intelligence, Hybrid Intelligence (HI) emerges, allowing the strengths of both humans and machines to be utilized.

While ecosystems have concrete benefits for human society, these benefits are typically overlooked in decision-making.

This dissertation is organised into three parts, each addressing a distinct research area related to Gibbs measures.

Healthy aging is one of the prime goals in today's society and atherosclerosis is among the greatest causes of morbidity in elderly. Cardiovascular disease patients receiving treatment are often of advanced aged and have an aged immune system, which limits translating experimental findings to the pa…

Promotor: V. Vitelli, Co-promotor: J. Paulose

In this work, I explore the creation of new methods that optimize simulations of the gravitational N-body problem. Specifically, I take advantage of the recent popularity of Machine Learning methods to find tools that can suit this problem.

Throughout the history of computer science, a major challenge has been how to assert that software is free of bugs and works as intended. Software bugs can lead to serious negative impacts on any software system. Throughout the main body of the thesis, we implemented a series of studies on exploring…

Promotor: W. Jaffe, Co-promotor: K. Meisenheimer

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…

The research aims to explore the evolutionary adaptability of enzymes and the impact of temperature on protein evolution pathways, using M. tuberculosis β-lactamase BlaC as the object of study. Enzymes inherently embody a delicate balance between activity and stability, and the acquisition of new enzymatic…

Promotor: Prof.dr. M.L. van Hecke, Co-Promotor: V. Vitelli

This thesis studies the geometry of representation varieties and character stacks. These are spaces parametrizing the representations of a finitely generated group, typically the fundamental group of a compact manifold, into an algebraic group G.

Promotor: J.W.M. Frenken

We consider the propagation of electrical signals through nerve fibres.

A tidal basin is an inland sea which is almost entirely enclosed by land and connected to the open sea by a tidal inlet. Through the tidal inlets interaction takes place between the tidal basin and the open sea.

The Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics states that a measurement collapses a wavefunction onto an eigenstate of the corresponding measurement operator.

The field of exoplanet research is rapidly advancing through the development of new technology, observing techniques, and post-processing methods.

Promotor: J.M. van Ruitenbeek, Co-Promotor: S.J. van der Molen

Promotor: J.N. Kok, P.E. Slagboom Co-promotor: J.F.J. Laros

Assessing the risks of engineered nanomaterials (ENMs) solely on the basis of experimental assays is time-consuming, resource intensive, and constrained by ethical considerations (such as the principles of the 3Rs of animal testing). The adoption of computational toxicology in this field is a high p…

In dit project gebruiken we sociale netwerkanalyse om het gedrag van gebruikers op online fora en bijbehorende marktplaatsen in de tijd te analyseren.

Science is typically a patchwork of research contributions without much coordination. Especially in clinical trials, the follow-up studies that we do fail to be the most promising.

Het doel van het RAISE Onderzoek is om te onderzoeken hoe veerkrachtige mensen omgaan met stress. We kijken specifiek naar hoe belangrijke biologische systemen, zoals de HPA-as en het immuunsysteem, samenwerken met de hersenen en de sociale omgeving om veerkrachtig functioneren na moeilijkheden in de…

With the advent of multicore processors and data centers, computer hardware has become increasingly parallel, allowing one to run multiple pieces of software at the same time on different machines. Coordination of these pieces is best expressed in a coordination language as an explicit interaction protocol…

A key step in the synthesis of oligosaccharides and glycoconjugates is the formation of the glycosidic bond.

In multi/many-core System-on-Chips (SoCs), the performance is almost linearly scaling with the number of processing elements.

Promotor: E. F. van Dishoeck, Co-promotor: C. Walsh

Elk jaar reikt het Leids Universitair Studentenplatform (LUS) de Leidse Onderwijsprijs uit.

Het Streaming the Past project, opgezet door archeologen en historici van de Universiteit Leiden, heeft recentelijk een NWA-beurs toegekend gekregen. Het Leidsch Dagblad en universitair weekblad Mare schreven een artikel over dit bijzondere project.

Samen met het Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam en creatieve partner Big Orange, gaan Laura Bertens, Sara Polak, Yra van Dijk en Thony Visser onderzoek doen naar het gebruik van de stem in culturele herinneringen.

Door de extreme droogte van afgelopen zomer kwamen wereldwijd rivieren zo goed als droog te liggen. Daardoor werden ineens allerlei archeologische schatten zichtbaar. Goed nieuws voor archeologen? Niet bepaald. Archeoloog Martijn Manders maakt zich grote zorgen over wat hij zag gebeuren. NEMO Kennislink…

Op zondag 19 augustus, zendt National Geographic channel het programma 'Drain the Oceans' uit, met focus op Martijn Manders' opgraving van het Nederlandse VOC-schip De Rooswijk.

Van 8 tot en met 26 mei deed de Rijksdienst voor het Cultureel Erfgoed (RCE) samen met de Universiteit Leiden onderzoek naar het scheepswrak Scheurrak SO1 in de Waddenzee. De betrokken docenten en studenten bloggen over hun activiteiten.

Begin juni vindt de Colombiaanse marine twee eeuwenoude scheepswrakken voor de kust van Cartagena. Ze liggen in de buurt van het wrak van de San José, een Spaans galjoen dat in 1708 verging in een gevecht met de Britten. Naast de bemanning had het schip 200 ton goud, zilver en juwelen aan boord, ter…

Sinds eind juli schrijft Sara Polak een wekelijkse column voor de zaterdageditie van het Leidsch Dagblad en een aantal gelieerde regionale kranten (Noord-Hollands Dagblad, Gooi- en Eemlander, Haarlems Dagblad, IJmuider Courant). Ze geeft daarin culturele, historische en politieke context aan de Amerikaanse…

Lezing, Tuesday Talk

In de Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen is de verwevenheid van onderzoek, onderwijs en impact vanzelfsprekend.

Lezing, Blue History Network Graduate Forum

Het archeologische onderzoeksproject Routes of Exchange, Roots of Connectivity, onder leiding van dr. Marike van Aerde, probeert in kaart te brengen hoe internationale handelsnetwerken er in de oudheid hebben uitgezien. Het Parool besteedde de zaterdagwetenschapsbijlage van 26 februari 2022 aan dit…

Van levensredders tot moderne Frankensteins. De klassieke vraag hoe ver wetenschappers mogen gaan komt telkens terug op 'toekomstcongres' Brave New World op 2 en 3 november. Wetenschappers en kunstenaars presenteren hun gedroomde technologieën en debatteren waar de grens moet liggen.

In times of hardships or crisis, local people know how to deal with it using their resourcefulness. Although efforts are sometimes made by the government to help them, they are fully aware that community support is at least equally important.

A new publication on changes in the relationship between news and their public in Chile