Cardiovascular diseases are among the most frequent causes of death in the world. The main underlying pathology of cardiovascular diseases is the development of atherosclerosis in the medium and large-sized arteries.

Cardiovascular diseases are the primary cause of death in the world with atherosclerosis as primary underlying cause.

Promotor: Prof.dr. J. Kuiper

This thesis focuses on two processes involved in fighting infections: metabolism and immune cell motility and navigation.

New drugs for use as tuberculosis (TB) treatment are needed due to the constrains of classical antibiotics against TB and the rise of antibiotic-resistant strains, making TB a harder and harder disease to treat.

This thesis describes the synthesis and biological evaluation of TLR2/6, TLR4, TLR7/8 and TLR9 ligands, of which the activity can be conditionally controlled.

Cardiovascular syndromes are the major cause of death in Western societies.

Promotor: H.P. Spaink, A.H. Meijer Co-promotor: R. Marin-Juez

Promotores: Prof.dr. J. Kuiper, Prof.dr. P.H.A. Quax, Co-promotor: I. Bot

Glucocorticoids (GCs) are widely prescribed as anti-inflammatory drugs due to their well-established immunosuppressive effects.

The cellular metabolism of immune cells constitutes an important part of their proper function and activation. Using T cells as an example, this phenomenon is highlighted by the metabolic reprogramming that occurs in these cells upon activation.

Promotor: H.P. Spaink, Co-Promotor: A.H. Meijer

One of the main challenges in the development of an effective anti-cancer vaccine is the generation of an adequate and directed cellular immune response.

Promotor: A.H. Meijer, Co-promotor: B.E. Snaar-Jagalska

The thesis addresses the long-term dynamical evolution of hierarchical multiple systems.

Nanoparticles can be used as delivery systems for both small molecules and macromolecules such as proteins, peptides or oligonucleotides. This thesis focuses on the use of liposomes, nanometric vesicles formed by a lipid bilayer enclosing an aqueous core. Liposomes are highly versatile delivery syst…

Promotor: Prof.dr. J. Kuiper

Promotor: G.F.A. Kersten, W. Jiskoot, Co-promotor: B. Metz

Vitamin A or retinol is essential in embryonic development, the visual cycle and the immune system.

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 thesis advances our understanding of lipid uptake, a vital first step in lipid metabolism, by developing innovative click chemistry-based tools to study how immune cells internalize lipids.

Promotor: C. W. J. Beenakker, Co-promotor: J. K. Asboth

In this thesis, a system pharmacology approach, integrating metabolomics, pharmacology and chemical biology, was applied to understand and modulate the endocannabinoid system across different model systems (cells, zebrafish, mice and humans).

Dynamical systems describe the evolution of objects in a space over time and may be used to model physical phenomena. Due to this, much research is dedicated to understanding the mathematics of dynamical systems.

Promotores: Prof.dr. H.P. Spaink & Prof.dr. P.C.W. Hogendoorn Co-promotor: Dr. M.J.M. Schaaf

Acute cardiovascular syndromes, including myocardial infarction or stroke, are the principal cause of death in the Western society. The main underlying pathology of cardiovascular diseases is atherosclerosis, which is caused by the accumulation of lipids and inflammatory cells in the vessel wall, in…

Cardiovascular disease is a major global burden and atherosclerosis is the main underlying pathological process.

Immunotherapies for cancer are an emerging class of therapeutic strategies which aim to treat cancer via augmentation of the immune system.

Systems are called real-time systems, if the correctness of the system does not only depend on the correctness of the system output but also on whether the output is delivered on time.

Promotor: Prof.dr. J.N. Kok

Het doel van het onderzoeksprogramma Systems Pharmacology ligt in de ontwikkeling van strategieën voor gepersonaliseerde geneesmiddelen en de ontwikkeling van nieuwe systeemgebaseerde benaderingen in de translationele en klinische farmacologie.

Promotor: W. Jiskoot, Co-promotor: A. Hawe

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).

According to the amyloid cascade hypothesis, accumulation of beta-amyloid (Aβ) peptides initiates the pathological cascade in Alzheimer's disease (AD).

Promotor: A. Doelman, Co-promotores: P.J.A. van Heijster; A. Zagaris

Promotor: Arjen Doelman, Co-promotor: Vivi Rottschäfer

Search and conversational systems have become central to how people access information and perform tasks.

Promotores: J. Jonkers, K.E. de Visser

This thesis provides explicit expressions for the density functions of absolutely continuous invariant measures for general families of interval maps, that include random maps and infinite measure transformations, not necessarily number systems.

Het onderzoek van dit programma is gecentreerd rond dynamische systemen, functionele analyse en hun interactie.

Het Computer Systems, Imagery & Media (CSI) onderzoeksprogramma voert fundamenteel onderzoek uit naar methoden en technieken voor het ontwerp, de implementatie en de applicatie van geavanceerde computersystemen.

This thesis studies operator-algebraic aspects of subproduct systems, a generalization of product systems of Hilbert spaces.

In condensed matter systems electron-electron interactions, negligible in everyday metals, can dramatically alter the electronic behavior of the system. Examples of such altered behavior include high-temperature superconductivity and modulation of the electron density.

Thermodynamics is one of the founding scientific pillars that has helped us better understand heat engines, biology, ecosystems, and even black holes. While it fundamentally describes large systems by examining the bulk behavior of their constituents, it is anchored in the statistical equivalence of…

In this thesis, we have studied the potential of the zebrafish larval model in studying the ECS, as a complementary model to the existing rodent models.

The outbreaks of AIDS and COVID-19 showed clearly how infectious viruses can influence people’s lives. Investigating the changes in the host metabolism may provide a paradigm shift to consider immune-metabolic interactions as therapeutic targets.

Promotor: J. van der Greef, T. Hankemeier; Co-promotor: H.A. van Wietmarschen

Discovery and development of Central Nervous System (CNS) drugs is hampered by high attrition rates.

Organisms often need to adapt more efficiently and devise new strategies for surviving difficult ecological circumstances.