The overall objectives of my thesis are to investigate the dynamics of the sorghum root microbiome and to explore the beneficial effects of the root microbiome on sorghum growth and stress tolerance.

Of all the mass in our Universe, 80% is thought to consist of a hypothetical and invisible substance called dark matter (DM).

Clinical development of drugs for central nervous system (CNS) disorders has been particularly challenging and still suffers from high attrition rates.

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

In this thesis new methodologies are developed for the detection and systematic study of radio sources in the early universe. This allows us to gain a deeper understanding of the formation and evolution of galaxies, the activity of supermassive black holes, and the final phase transition of our universe:…

Promotores: Prof.dr. M. Franx, Prof.dr. P.G. van Dokkum (Yale University)

Promotor: Prof.dr. E.F. Smets, Co-Promotor: L.W. Chatrou

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

Promotor: G.J. Kramer Co-Promotor: E.G.M. Kleijn

The focus of this thesis is how stars like our Sun and planets like Jupiter, Saturn, and Earth are formed.

Promotor: G.R. de Snoo, W. Kustiawan, Co-promotor: H.H. de Iongh

It has now been well established that shocks and turbulent motions in the intra-cluster medium (ICM) generated through cluster mergers can produce large-scale synchrotron emission.

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

Promotores: Prof.dr. F. van Lunteren, Prof.dr. F.S. Gaastra

What are the main factors associated with the stranding of the two seal species? What are the factors influencing the prevalence of disease in the two species? Which human-related factors influence the populations of the two seal species?

What is vegetation structure and composition in SFM primary forest, secondary logged over forest (logging FSC certified and logging non certified) in comparison to primary forest? What is avian guild diversity in SFM primary forest, secondary logged over forest (logging FSC certified and logging non…

What categories exist in the languages of pastoralists? Do these semantic concepts reflect universal or languagespecific tendencies? What (environment? culture?) governs the similarities (or the differences) attested crosslinguistically in cattle colour systems?

Promotores: H.A. Udo De Haes, P.M. Brakefield

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.

Op dinsdag 11 februari 2020 verdedigde Clara van Dam haar proefschrift ‘Guidance documents of the European Commission in the Dutch legal order’.

This thesis describes the development and validation of new high-contrast imaging techniques, with the ultimate goal of enabling the next generation of instruments for ELT-class telescopes to directly image Earth-like extra-solar planets orbiting around nearby stars.

In order to gain a better insight into the basis of the rapid jasmonic acid (JA)-mediated stress response, an integrated approach using a targeted high-resolution mass spectrometry-based (HRMS) platform, was conducted to monitor the metabolism of JA using the model system of cell suspension cultures…

Streptomyces bacteria are a valuable source of natural products, many of which are used in the clinic or in biotechnology.

Phospholipase A/acyltransferase 3 (PLAAT3) and PLAAT4 are enzymes involved in the synthesis of bioactive lipids. Despite sequential and structural similarities, the two enzymes differ in activity and specificity.

Bacteria have the ability to alter their morphology in order to adapt to changing environments.

In astronomy, the interpration of observations and measurements plays a crucial role: we rely purely and fundamentally on the information that reaches us as observers. And 80% of all matter in the universe is undetectable directly.

This project, South American population history revisited: multidisciplinary perspectives on the Upper Amazon (SAPPHIRE), investigates population dynamics in western South America on the basis of traces in the geographical, genetic, archaeological, ethnological, and linguistic record.

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

When observing star-forming galaxies, we are not only seeing stellar light, but we also see how this interacts with galactic gas and dust. This thesis contains studies of the stellar, nebular and dust properties of low mass star-forming galaxies.

Promotor: Prof.dr. K.H. Kuijken, Co-Promotor: H.Hoekstra

By growing in a soil plants change the biotic and abiotic properties of the soil in which they grow.

This thesis aims to investigate the effect of tripartite interaction between microbial inoculants, the plant, and herbivore insects on the rhizosphere microbiome and volatilome. We investigated the rhizosphere microbiome and volatilome of tomato plants exposed to insect herbivory and/or inoculated with…

Detecting planets during their formation stages is crucial for understanding the history and diversity of fully developed planetary systems like our own. However, observing young planets directly is challenging because they are often deeply embedded within their host protoplanetary discs, rich in gas…

Promotor: E. Bouwman, Co-promotor: S. Bonnet

The main object of study in this thesis is an Arakelov inequalitywhich bounds the degree of an invertible subsheaf of the direct image ofthe pluricanonical relative sheaf of a semistable family of curves.

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

In this thesis, we aim to shed light on the diverse and often opposing roles of integrin α3β1 in cancer.

In this thesis, we have studied cell images from two types of cells, including pollen grains and the immune cells, neutrophils. These images are captured using a bright field microscope and a confocal microscope.

The class-imbalance problem is a challenging classification task and is frequently encountered in real-world applications. Various techniques have been developed to improve the imbalanced classification performance theoretically and practically.

The thesis mainly contributes to the characterization of Majorana fermions as they appear in the Condensed Matter context.

The thesis describes experimental steps towards reduction of friction on the macroscopic scale by scenarios of thermo- and superlubricity well-known on the nanoscale.

Arithmetic geometry concerns the number-theoretic properties of geometric objects defined by polynomials. Mathematicians are interested in the rational solutions to these geometric objects.

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…

Promotor: Prof.dr. A.P. IJzerman, Co-Promotor: L.H. Heitman

Triple-negative breast cancer (TNBC) is a subtype of breast cancer characterized by limited treatment options and unfavorable clinical outcomes. Therefore, the research described in this thesis focused on the exploration of novel targeted therapies for TNBC.

Even though more than 4000 extra-solar planets are known today, only a small fraction of these has been captured in an image. To better understand the planet formation mechanisms in solar-like environments we started the Young Suns Exoplanet Survey (YSES).

Why do black holes emit thermal radiation? And how does a closed quantum system thermalize?

Pulsars were first discovered in 1967 and since then the population has grown and expanded over several wavelengths.

During the course of drug discovery translational steps are made.

The research described in this thesis combines the latest insights in lysosomal function with lysosome centred cell signalling.