Plants, are sessile organisms, have developed strategies to adapt to changes in their environment, in part by altering their growth and development.

Promotor: M.K. Richardson, Co-Promotor: F. Witte

The rapidly increasing commercial application of metallic nanoparticles within products will inevitably enhance the amount of NPs being released into soil.

Promotores: Prof.dr. W.J.G.M. Peijnenburg & Dr. M.G. Vijver

Promotor: Prof.dr. T. Hankemeier, Co-promotor: Theo Reijmers

During post-embryonic development into adults, animals face an environment that fluctuates constantly. For example, in nutrient availability, temperature, and osmolarity (e.g., salt concentration).

Freshwater is an important resource, but at a great risk of species decline due to habitat loss, pollution and over-exploitation, and invasive alien species.

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

Promotor: Jaap Brouwer, Co-promotor: Remus Th. Dame

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.

Promotor: G.P. van Wezel, Co-promotor: D. Claessen

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.

In populations with a seed-bank, individuals can temporarily become dormant and refrain from reproduction until they can become active again. The repository of all dormant individuals in the population is called the seed-bank. Seed-banks are observed in many taxa, including plants, bacteria and other…

M.T.M. Koper, Co-promotor: D.G.H. Hetterscheid

Sphingolipids are important membrane compounds with a variety of functions. In mammalian cells, different enzymes are involved in the metabolism of sphingolipids, but interruption of this metabolism process leads to different diseases.

The thesis explores how interstellar chemistry evolves as a function of time and changing physical architectures during the formation of stars.

Promotor: M.T.M. Koper, Co-Promotor: L.B.F. Juurlink

This Thesis shows discoveries in non-linear astrochemical kinetics as well as a deeper analysis of dark clouds chemistry.

This thesis highlights the significant role of surface geometry and oxidation state in determining CO adsorption behavior on copper surfaces.

Soms is een idee op het eerste gezicht zo logisch, dat je je achteraf afvraagt waarom niemand er eerder op is gekomen. Twee onderzoekers van het LACDR hebben samen een volledig synthetisch alternatief voor antistoffen ontwikkeld. Een alternatief dat dezelfde grootte, vorm en werking heeft, maar goedkoper,…

Een nieuwe klasse polymeren is voor het eerst bij patiënten toegepast. Het gaat om de eerste nieuwe hulpstof in decennia die medicijnen beter oplosbaar maakt. Scheikundige Matthias Barz introduceerde de stof in 2014, die een uniek alternatief op de huidige opties biedt.

Dana Rademaker heeft de Unilever Research Prize gewonnen. Ze ontving de prijs, samen met 2.500 euro, op 12 december bij het onlangs geopende Food Innovation Centre van Unilever. Ze behaalde afgelopen jaar haar Master Chemistry.

Lezing, Harold Linnartz Astrochemistry Prize lecture

Promotors: Prof.dr. E. Bouwman, Prof.dr. E. Drent

Dissociative chemisorption is an important reaction step in many catalytic reactions.

The goal of this thesis is to understand how interfacial parameters, such as the addition of organic additives, bulk pH or metal cations of the electrolyte, affect the relevant electrocatalytic reactions, i.e. electrochemical CO2 reduction reaction or hydrogen evolution reaction.

This dissertation focused on computational methods based on first principles calculations using the Density Functional Theory (DFT) framework. Emphasis was laid on affordable methods that can provide a tradeoff between computational expense and accuracy.

Light-Harvesting Complex II (LHCII) is responsible for light absorption and excitation energy transfer in plants and photosynthetic algae, while in high light it undergoes conformational changes by which it quenches excitations to prevent photodamage.

Heterogeneous catalyzed processes are highly significant to the chemical industry. Dissociative chemisorption (DC) of molecules on surfaces is always considered as a step with a high degree of rate control for heterogeneous catalysis.

Promotor: Prof.dr. H.J.M. de Groot, Co-promotor: Francesco Buda

Dit proefschrift beschrijft een collectie aan alternatieve strategieën voor het begrijpen, ontwerpen en toepassen van lipide nanosystemen, waarin de rol van de bio-nano interacties centraal staan. In het bijzonder wordt gekeken naar de interactie van RNA-lipide nanosystemen, bekend van de toepassing…

Voor de omzetting van zonlicht naar brandstof

This thesis focused on the exploration of monolayer graphene as a membrane in direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) applications, with improvements achieved through plasma exposure or damage- free chemical functionalization.

This thesis comprises the development of reproducible synthesis procedures for two-dimensional materials (composed of boron, nitrogen and carbon) on different metallic surfaces.

Promotor: Prof.dr. A.G.G.M. Tielens, Prof.dr. C. Dominik (UvA)

A new type of tripodal squaramide-based supramolecular hydrogels is developed and studied.

Molecular complexes can be used as electrocatalysts for oxygen reduction, water oxidation, and/or hydrogen peroxide production.

This thesis focuses on data found in the field of computational drug discovery. New insight can be obtained by applying machine learning in various ways and in a variety of domains. Two studies delved into the application of proteochemometrics (PCM), a machine learning technique that can be used to…

In this thesis we have discussed several parameters that affect the electrochemical conversion of enviromentaly harmful molecules such as nitrates and carbon dioxide to more valuable and less deleterious compounds, in order to cast light onto the mechanism of the reaction to achieve an efficient and…

The aim of this thesis is to develop and study a robust and adaptable scaffold for supramolecular polymer self-assembly in water.

This dissertation contains four works during my PhD. Different biomaterials have been designed based on coiled-coil peptides. These biomaterials have a range of applications, inclusing drug delivery, cell sorting to cell-cell fusion.

BlaC is the β-lactamase of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. We show that it can recover from inhibition by clavulanic acid and that phosphate helps it do so.

The main goal of this thesis is to achieve advanced control of binding properties in bis-pyrrolic and macrocyclic pyrrolic receptors by light.

This thesis covers various applications of topology in condensed matter physics and quantum information.

This thesis focuses on the synthesis, characterization and performance towards CO2 electroreduction of mono and bi-metallic particles based on p-block metals

A structural investigation of coiled coil peptides used as membrane fusogens, mimicing naturally occuring coiled-coil fusion proteins. Synthetic modifications have been made to alter lipid attachment, secondary structure and to insert photoactive azobenzene moieties for active control over coiled coil…

Promotor: Prof.dr. J.P. Abrahams

Promotor: Prof.dr. H.L.V. Linnartz

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