This thesis describes the use of a combined approach of computational and experimental techniques to gain novel insights to understand the glycosylation reaction and its reactive intermediates.

Promotor: P.G.L. Klinkhamer, Co-Promotores: K. Vrieling, P.P.J. Mulder

Solar energy harnessed by plants and algae has great potential to be converted into biofuels for future generations.

Promotor: Prof.dr. S.F. Portegies Zwart

Promotors: C.A.J. Knibbe, Anthonius de Boer, Co-promotor: M.M.J. van der Vorst

The redox-conversion reaction of metal-disulfide and metal-thiolate complexes are important, as they may shed light on electron-transfer reactions that often occur in Nature.

Streptomyces are prolific producers of enzymes and secondary metabolites, including more than 50% of all clinical antibiotics. This makes them highly attractive for medical, biotechnological, and industrial purposes.

Promotor: Prof.dr. H.P. Spaink, Co-promotor: Dr. M. van der Zee

Actinobacteria are well known for the production of bioactive natural products, many of which have applications in the fields of human, animal and plant health. Subject of this thesis are the anthracyclines, glycosylated aromatic polyketides with potent anticancer activity.

In my research, we developed a method to distinguish knots. A knot is a mathematical depiction of the everyday knot that occurs in ropes and cords.

Material circularity and energy efficiency are highly relevant and intertwined issues for the transition towards a carbon-neutral and circular built environment. In the Netherlands, the building sector has been rendered a priority towards a circular and low-carbon society.

The electrochemical oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is an essential half-reaction for the utilization of hydrogen as a sustainable fuel, via the conversion of hydrogen to electrons and protons facilitated by the ORR. In the most common fuel cells, the ORR is requires high loadings of non-abundant platinum…

Promotor: S.M. Verduyn Lunel

A sustainable resource management is an essential aspect to satisfy the current human needs without compromising the needs of future generations.

The name ‘Jambi flora’ refers to fossil plants found as part of a rock formation from the Early Permian (296 million years old), located in the Jambi Province of Sumatra, Indonesia.

Promotor: Prof.dr. J.P. Abrahams, Prof.dr. M. van Heel

Women Writing Mexico (WWM) is a network of women and men concerned with the human rights crisis in Mexico and more specifically, with the impact of structural forms of poverty, everyday violence, and discrimination based on gender, race, social class, and ethnicity, that particularly have an impact…

The demand for neodymium-iron-boron (NdFeB) magnets is rapidly growing, while the neodymium supply chain is under pressure. Recycling can alleviate these issues. This thesis investigates the potential for deploying novel magnet recycling technologies and their environmental consequences.

Atherosclerosis is the most important underlying process that drives cardiovascular disease, and is characterized by an accumulation of cholesterol which triggers an inflammatory response in the vessel wall.

Lysosomal acid glucosylceramidase (GBA1) is a lysosomal enzyme that degrades glucolipids with its main substrate being glucosylceramide (GlcCer). Defects in the GBA1 gene lead to glycosphingolipidosis Gaucher disease (GD), in which the hydrolysis of GlcCer is impaired and therefore, it accumulates in…

Self-assembly is an abundant process in nature and is vital to many processes in living organisms.

Parkinson's disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease in the world. One of its symptoms is the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra pars compacta.

Utilizing the polymeric platform of polypept(o)ides, this thesis describes synthesis and investigation of novel triblock copolymers to obtain carrier systems with multiple compartments for efficient siRNA delivery. Although the individual microstructure of nanoparticles differs depending on the polymeric…

Acute cardiovascular clinical events such as myocardial infarction and cerebral stroke represent the major cause of death in Western societies. These pathologies are primarily resulting from atherosclerosis, a progressive condition characterized by the accumulation of lipids, immune cells, and fibrous…

Overall dispersion in LCA as result of inherent uncertainties, spread and unrepresentativeness.

Langetermijnontwikkelingen, zoals het verouderen van de bevolking, de toename in de gemiddelde levensverwachting en de gevolgen van de recente financiële crisis, hebben bijgedragen aan de discussie rondom de houdbaarheid van het pensioenstelsel.

Aspergillus niger is an important industrial producer of organic acids and enzymes producing large amounts of spent fungal biomass.

Promotor: F. Arbab

Balsaminaceae is a diverse plant family characterized by a huge floral morphological diversity.

Protein–protein complexes are formed via transient states called encounter complexes that greatly influence the formation of the stereospecific complex.

In this dissertation iron-based homogeneous catalysts were synthesized, characterized and investigated for water oxidation activity.

Schistosomiasis is an acute and chronic disease caused by blood dwelling parasitic trematodes of the genus Schistosoma, and it is classified as the second most socioeconomically devastating parasitic disease, second only to malaria.

Op 11 november 2021 verdedigde Evelien Campfens het proefschrift 'Cross-border Claims to Cultural Objects'. Het promotieonderzoek is begeleid door prof.dr. N.J. Schrijver en prof.dr. W.J. Veraart (VU Amsterdam).

Pectin is a plant cell wall polysaccharide made of mainly D-galacturonic acid (GA) subunits. The potency of the filamentous fungus Aspergillus niger to naturally secrete high amounts of pectinases to degrade pectin has been utilized for the industrial production of pectinases.

Subproject of the ERC project 'Challenging the Liberal World Order from Within: The Invisible History of the United Nations and the Global South'.

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) constitutes a small subtype (~15%) of breast cancer, but causes the majority of breast cancer-related deaths.

This thesis is concerned with the constitution of chiral responsive matrix assemblies that may undergo light-driven conformational changes and self-select vibrations to develop vibronic states for driving semi-classical coherent transfer with nearly 100% yield in a lossless NCAP process.

This thesis describes the role of pollution, specifically neonicotinoid insecticides, as an actor of the ongoing biodiversity decline.

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 spindle-assembly checkpoint (SAC) is a safety mechanism which secures accurate chromosome segregation during mitosis.

This thesis studied in depth the energy use and CO2 emissions of the industrial sector in China.

The increasing competition in the automotive industry requires the tailored, swift development of technologically sophisticated vehicles. Therefore, the computationally expensive state-of-the-art simulation technologies are combined with optimization algorithms. An example of a real-world optimization…

Promotores: Prof.dr. G.W. Canters, Prof.dr. T.J. Aartsma

Drug-induced liver injury (DILI) is one of the main reasons for drug attrition during pre-clinical and clinical phases of drug development as well as for drug withdrawal post-marketing.

Several single-stranded RNA viruses make use of Xrn1-resistant RNAs in their 3’ untranslated regions of their genome RNAs in order to increase their pathogenicity.

Stochastic resetting is simple enough to be approached analytically, yet modifies stochastic processes in a non-trivial way.

Anthropogenic noise has been shown to affect marine animals in various ways, this may have fitness consequences at individual and population level. This thesis aims to increase insight into the quantification of sound-induced behavioural responses that are relevant to fitness, and into factors that…

Promotors: Prof.dr. G.R. de Snoo, Prof.dr. H. Leirs (Univ. Antwerpen)

Marine sponges are important members of reef ecosystems, as they play ecological roles that are essential for the health of the reef.

The PID-directed shift in PIN polarity has been broadly accepted as one of the essential mechanisms for the regulation of auxin transport polarity.