Wij richten ons op natuurlijke producten van onderzoek, de traditionele geneeskunde, etnobotanie en fytochemie.

Dissolution processes – next to aggregation processes - play an important role for fate prediction and environmental risk assessment of metal-based nanoparticles (MNPs). It is challenging to predict the kinetics of the dissolution process of MNPs in complex systems such as we can find in in vivo and…

Promotor: Prof.dr. J.G.E.M. Fraaije, Co-promotor: A. Kros

This thesis addresses the challenge of sustainable urban development by analyzing the interplay between green and grey infrastructure to optimize resource use and ecosystem services.

The mycorrhizal symbiosis is among the most widespread species interactions on Earth⁠. This thesis focuses on orchid mycorrhiza, a unique mycorrhizal type that has caught scientists’ attention for centuries⁠.

Mycoheterotrophy is a particular mode of life in which plants obtain carbohydrates from their associated fungal partners, instead of by using photosynthesis.

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

Na het afronden van de bacheloropleiding volgen verreweg de meeste studenten de masteropleiding. De Universiteit Leiden stimuleert studenten om na hun bacheloropleiding door te gaan met de masteropleiding.

Promotor: H.S. Overkleeft, Co-promotor: M. van der Stelt

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.

Trigonostemon Blume is a plant genus in the family Euphorbiaceae comprising 59 species.

Diacylglycerol lipases (DAGLα and DAGLβ) are responsible for the biosynthesis of the endocannabinoid 2-arachidonoylglycerol (2-AG) in the brain and peripheral tissues. Selective DAGLβ inhibitors have been proposed as a potential treatment for inflammatory diseases with reduced potential for central…

Promotor: A. Kros

Promotor: Prof.dr. M. Ubbink

Promotor: D. Bouwmeester, Co-promotor: D. Kraft

Consequences for sediment stability and seston trapping

Promotores: E. van Dijk, G.R. de Snoo. Co-promotor: H. Staats

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

This thesis focuses on the social dimensions of crane and wetland conservation in rural landscapes in Kenya, Uganda and Zimbabwe.

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

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

Lezing

Promotor: G.R. de Snoo

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

At the moment, over 350.000 chemicals are registered worldwide for production and use. Their application, however, may harm human health and the environment.

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.

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

Carbohydrates, or sugars, are the most diverse and most abundant biomolecules known. However, the isolation of carbohydrate samples in sufficient amounts and purity is often impractical or even impossible, so the chemical synthesis of glycosides becomes relevant. The glycosylation reaction, in which…

Single-molecule spectroscopy has become a powerful method for using organic fluorescent molecules in numerous applications.

This dissertation presents the synthesis and evaluation of antibody recognition for various capsular polysaccharide (CP) fragments of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus).

Endothelial dysfunction and microvascular diseases are key drivers of cardiovascular disease, the world's leading cause of death.

Supramolecular polymers are class of materials that are formed by non-covalent interactions such as hydrogen bonding, π-π interactions, electrostatic interactions and the hydrophobic effect.

Plant exudates appeared long time ago in the history line of life in the early Devonian. They are typical saps produced by specialized cells.

Glycosidases (GHs) are enzymes responsible for the degradation of carbohydrates and play many roles in human health and pathophysiology. Often, abnormal levels of glycosidase activity are markedly linked to human pathologies.

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

The applications of studying the early development of insects range from agriculture to material science.

Promotores: Prof.dr. G.A. van der Marel, M. van Heel

Inverse problems are problems where we want to estimate the values of certain parameters of a system given observations of the system. Such problems occur in several areas of science and engineering. Inverse problems are often ill-posed, which means that the observations of the system do not uniquely…

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…

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…

Principles of Environmental Sciences provides a comprehensive picture of the principles, concepts and methods that are applicable to problems originating from the interaction between the living and non-living environment and mankind. Both the analysis of such problems and the way solutions to environmental…

Pseudomonas Aeruginosa is a Gram-negative bacterium which can form biofilms, increasing its resistance against antibiotics and the host immune system. Polysaccharides are an integral part of this biofilm, one of these polysaccharides is called Psl. PslG is a glycosidase, able to cleave this polysaccharide,…

Electron microscopy has become an extremely important techniquein a wide variety of elds.

β-Lactamases are enzymes that can break down β-lactam substrates, such as antibiotics, preventing the use of these antibiotics for the treatment of various infectious diseases. However, some compounds, β-lactamase inhibitors, can block these enzymes allowing for possible treatments using a combination…

Advanced UHF MRI techniques provide powerful tools for studying the zebrafish brain, an emerging model in neurological research. In this work, various MRI and localized MRS methods are optimized and employed for UHF strength for studying the zebrafish brain.

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…

This thesis explores how electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy can be used to investigate key biochemical processes.

Promotores: G. Persoon, R. Schefold

My PhD project studies how the temporally sequential Hox gene expression is regulated during head-tail patterning of the frog embryo.

Wetland plants are distinguished from plants of other terrestrial ecosystems by their adaptations to specific habitat stresses, including waterlogged and flooding and the subsequent abundance of phytotoxic compounds.