The Old Observatory in Leiden has reclaimed its most important telescope. Since the 1960s, the Meridian Circle (also known as a transit telescope) had been housed in the Boerhaave Museum. After more than sixty years, the telescope is finally back in its original location. Now, the public can enjoy it during guided tours.
A woman is murdered every eight days in the Netherlands. Marieke Liem, professor of Security and Interventions at Leiden University, is working on the Femicide Monitor, a public database on femicide in the Netherlands. Femicide is when women are killed because of their gender. More knowledge is vital to protecting women in the future.
Bladder cancer is one of the most common forms of cancer in the Netherlands. And it is persistent: in eight out of ten people, the tumour returns after treatment. A remarkable discovery by Dr Gabri van der Pluijm and his team offers new hope. They found that the antipsychotic Penfluridol, which is used to treat schizophrenia, has an inhibitory effect on cancer cells.
How do you ensure that people who have had a stroke get the right therapy at the right time? This is the question researcher Jorit Meesters wants to answer. The aim? For more patients to be able to use their arms and hands again after a stroke.
'We can uncover new, non-pharmacological strategies to help individuals, especially those struggling with weight loss', reveals psychologist Aleksandrina Skvortsova about her LUF grant for the project 'Mind Over Meal'. We spoke to Dr. Skvortsova and asked her three questions about her research.
Job seekers are increasingly likely to undergo pre-employment screening such as a criminal record check. The big question is what tools are used and how is the information acquired assessed?
A huge shiny aluminium object stands in the middle of the Polderlab in Oud Ade. Are the researchers trying to make contact with extraterrestrial life? Certainly not; they are using the 'moon landers' to measure whether innovative forms of agriculture reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Fleur van Duin works as a PhD student in the Polderlab and is excited about the arrival of the instruments.
To cover up their deportation plans which targeted Polish Jews in the Warsaw Ghetto, the Nazis re-opened schools. In her inaugural lecture, historian Sarah Cramsey demonstrates with examples how care was used ‘as a weapon’ during the Holocaust. She also stresses that care is a unifying cement in society and calls for more historical research.
One discovered that arteriosclerosis resembles an autoimmune disease, while the other developed a system to aid in the search for new medications. For these achievements, Marie Depuydt and Jurren de Groot were awarded the Krijn Rietveld Memorial Innovation Award on the evening of Tuesday 4 June.
The Leiden University Fund (LUF) Committee for Academic Expenditure (CWB) has an annual project grant round in March for teaching and research projects up to 35,000 euros. This is made possible by the donors of the LUF, the Praesidium Libertatis I Foundation and the collaboration of the LUF with the Gratama-Stichting and the Stichting Elise Mathilde Fonds.