News & updates

In this fifth edition of the LUMC Global interview series, 5 (bio)medical students of LUMC share their stories about their time abroad. They share their experiences and tell us about their challenges and how these shaped their academic journey! 

Join Our Session: From Communicable to Non-Communicable Disease Transition – 25^th of September from 9.00-10.15 (CET)

Opportunities to Provide Better Health and Well-Being

27 August 2024, 09:00 – 18:30
Leiden University Medical Center

Join us in this exciting Conference on ‘FAIR Data, FAIR Africa – Internationalisation of the Health Data Space!’

We are happy to announce keynote speaker H.E. Fortune Charumbira, President of the AU Pan African Parliament who will speak about “Empowerment through Digital Data Ownership in Africa”.

19 – 28 august 2024
Leiden University Medical Center and Online

We are excited to announce the publication of the latest joint research between Universitas Indonesia and Leiden University Medical Center in Nature Communications!

On may 29th, the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) had the honor of receiving the Indonesian Minister of Health, Budi Gunadi Sadikin, and two attachés from the Indonesian embassy. The visit was all about collaboration in the fields of healthcare, education and research.

In the fourth edition in our “Faces Behind LUMC Global” series, Dr. Jogchum Beltman, a gynecologist-oncologist at LUMC brings us back to the early days of his career as a tropical doctor in Malawi and his current work as a medical specialist. A story about his experiences and the challenges he faced in this exciting field. 

In the third edition of our “Faces Behind LUMC Global” interview series Dr. Jeremia J. Pyuza, a medical doctor and laboratory scientist, tells us the inspiring story of his journey from Tanzania to the Netherlands. Through his passion for research, he is committed to making an impact within rural and urban communities of his home country Tanzania. 

In the second interview of our series “Faces Behind LUMC Global”, we focus on Prof. Thomas van den Akker and Dr. Joanne Verweij, two gynecologists specializing in perinatology at LUMC, to share their views on the field of global maternal health and the role of LUMC Global.  

Every year, the Dutch ‘Keuzegids Masters’ ranks all master’s programs based on student evaluations from the National Student Survey (NSE). LUMC masters have been rated above average.

In this first interview as part of a series by LUMC Global, Maria Yazdanbakhsh shares her story and her view on internationalization in research. 

Be aware: grant open to both Dutch and English speaking individuals!

LUF scholarships from the Prof. Dr. A.E. Meinders Fund provide support to talented students and PhD candidates in the field of internal medicine. These scholarships are intended for conducting scientific research, such as a portion of a doctoral study or a scientific internship, with a focus on patient care abroad. Preference is given to clinicians over “laboratory assistants.”

In a significant stride towards international collaboration in medical education, LUMC and Airlangga University have fortified their existing partnership. Notably, the collaborative efforts were spearheaded by Artaria Tjempakasari, the coordinator of the Renal and Urinary Tract block for third-year undergraduate medical students at Airlangga University, and Prof. Dr. Joris Rotmans from the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC).

The VODAN community is inviting everyone to their presentation day on the 21^st of December 2023 in Leiden or online in order to provide updates regarding VODAN, certify data stewards and see the presentations from the Fieldlab teams. For more information about registration, see article.

Students at Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) have the opportunity to go abroad during their studies. Learning or working in a foreign cultural environment enriches their development and can serve them well once they become a professional. In this article, three students talk about their experiences abroad.

19 – 23 November 2023, Utrecht, The Netherlands

This November another edition of the “European Congress on Global Health” (ECTMIH 2023) takes place. This time in Utrecht, The Netherlands. This year’s theme is “planetary health” with a focus on “shaping the future of equitable and sustainable planetary health”. The LUMC is a proud partner of this event and recognizes the importance of the effect of climate change on health as one of the key challenges of this century.

ECTMIH Academy, Sunday 19 November 2023, 14:00 – 15:30, Social Impact Factory Utrecht

LUMC and LUMC Global was represented at the 2023 Conference of the American Medical Informatics Association which opened on 12 November. Prof. Mirjam van Reisen, Prof FAIR Data Science and Erik Schultes, presented at the scientific panel on “The CEDAR Workbench: Semantic Technology to Ensure FAIR Data” alongside Mark A. Musen, M.D. from the Center for Biomedical Informatics Research, Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford; Anthony L. Juehne, from the Office of the Director, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda; and  Rachel L. Richesson, University of Michigan Medical School, Ann Arbor.

The presentations focused on the LUMC-research on the curation of medical data to ensure data is Findable, Accessible (under well-defined conditions), Interoperable and Reusable (FAIR) and Federated AI Ready.

This semester, we have the great pleasure to count 20 Indonesian students to our student population in the English taught elective courses. They come as part of our strategic collaboration with Universitas Indonesia and Universitas Atma Jaya in Jakarta. They study different courses at the Leiden University Medical Center, ranging from Heart and Blood Vessels to Global Health and Advanced Fetal and Neonatal Care.

Sagni Girma Fage and Mohammed Yuya Ebro, two LUMC Global PhD students, are busy conducting research in eastern Ethiopia through a project called “Ethiopian Obstetric Surveillance System (EthOSS)”. This is a collaboration between Haramaya University (Ethiopia), the University of Oxford (UK), and LUMC which is active in 13 public hospitals in eastern Ethiopia. They are trying to identify determinants of maternal death such as perinatal hemorrhage in order to develop and implement new interventions to prevent future maternal deaths.

In the afternoon of the 11^th of January, a large group of Chinese PhD candidates and some of their supervisors came together with our dean Prof Pancras Hogendoorn, LUMC Global, the Graduate School and LAP in the HePatho Bar to celebrate the western new year and formally meet each other. We also looked forward to the celebration of the Chinese new year, the year of the rabbit!

A delegation of the LUMC visited the University of Edinburgh (UoE) from 9 till 11 November for multiple purposes, but for one thing in particular: to strengthen bonds. With just over a handful of colleagues, the LUMC traveled to Edinburgh to discuss current projects and future collaborations!

Leiden-Delft-Erasmus Universities are in the perfect position to contribute in an interdisciplinary way to the urgent global challenges we nowadays face, not only in its own region, but more importantly: worldwide. To make a real difference, we closely collaborate with our partners in the Majority World on topics such as Health, Water, Energy, Housing, Climate, Migration, Heritage and more. 

At the opening of the LDE-BRIN Academy on 31 October, the Bosscha Medal was awarded to Professor Taniawati Supali from the Department of Parasitology at the University of Indonesia. She receives the medal for her outstanding contribution to science and her working style, which is characterised by collaboration, knowledge sharing and strong social engagement.

One of the key focus countries for the LUMC in working on global health challenges is Indonesia. Through the LUMC Global programme, and in collaboration with multiple stakeholders, collaborations with numerous top institutions in Indonesia have resulted in wonderful results and experiences, for instance in student mobility.

We celebrate a proud moment for the LUMC Global team as Ni Made Hustrini, who started her PhD project about a year ago, publishes her first paper as first author. Together with fellow authors Endang Susalit and Prof. Joris Rotmans her article titled ‘Prevalence and risk factors for chronic kidney disease in Indonesia: An analysis of the National Basic Health Survey 2018’has been recently published in the Journal of Global Health, a subject related to Made’s PhD project on chronic kidney disease.

The final week of September 2022 marked a very special week as the LUMC had the honour of welcoming not one, not two, but three different delegations to the academic hospital. Spearheaded by the LUMC Global team, we welcomed delegates from Indonesia, Malaysia and the United States of America to discuss possibilities for international collaboration.

As a part of the Orientation Week Leiden (OWL), The faculty of Medicine (LUMC) of Leiden University welcomed over 50 new international students. They were welcomed with a tour through the academic hospital.

Exciting news! Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC) and Leiden University will start a new two-year Master’s programme in Transfusion Medicine and Cellular and Tissue Therapies on October 20th, 2022. Accreditation for the Master’s – offered in conjunction with the Autonomous University of Barcelona (AUB) – has been granted by the Dutch-Flemish Accreditation Organisation (NVAO).

Brazilian Alexandre Marques started his Global PhD project in January 2022. His view on research? “Every step we take in research gets us closer to the truth”. Let’s delve into Alexandre’s view on life, research and the project he will be working on.

On May 30th, international experts and politicians gathered in Leiden to discuss global health issues during the Global Impact in Health Symposium. Lively discussions were held on matters concerning equal worldwide access to vaccines and diversity within clinical research. New scientific insights were also shared, including on vaccine response differences between African and European populations. Missed the event? Check out the after movie and get in touch!

During the EU TalentOn, 26 teams of 4 highly motivated European individuals will compete in finding innovative solutions to grand societal challenges in five Mission Arenas, linked to the EU Missions. The themes these teams will be working on during this brand-new event are climate adaptation, cancer, healthy soils and clean waters, and smart and climate-neutral cities.

During the week of 14-18 September 2022, each team will be matched to a buddy, working as the team manager. This person will do everything possible to help the team and maximize efficiency. As a buddy, you get to experience the EU TalentOn and its thrilling program at PLNT in Leiden and gain experience within the organization of an international academic event.

On May 30th, international experts and politicians gathered in Leiden to discuss global health issues. Lively discussions were held on matters concerning equal worldwide access to vaccines and diversity within clinical research. New scientific insights were also shared, including on vaccine response differences between African and European populations. The daily conclusion was clear: global collaboration and innovative research is key to solving the greatest health challenges of our time.

Leiden2022 marks what the City of Leiden has achieved in science till date and how it wishes to move forward to contribute to challenges of various kinds. The LUMC is one of many organizations showcasing science in practice with interactive events for a variety of target groups. Like with all Leiden based companies, Leiden2022 offers the LUMC the opportunity to show its societal and academic value on an international stage, strengthening its international position, as well as explore possibilities for new international collaborations to contribute to global healthcare challenges even more comprehensively. The Global Impact in Health symposium on May 30^th, 2022, part of the LSH week, aims to stimulate just that by bringing together healthcare experts from all over the world working on a broad range of important health(care) related research and projects. Here’s a few things you can expect.

During the Global Impact in Health Symposium, Dr. Emile Bienvenu, Director General of the Food and Drug Authority of Rwanda and Hans Schikan, PharmD, Topteam Member Dutch Topsector Life Sciences & Health (Health Holland, organizing partner of the symposium) and former Special Envoy for Vaccines will reflect on the COVID-19 pandemic till date and discuss how to create a better global ecosystem to generate more impact on patients. Hans Schikan shares his experience as Special Envoy for Vaccines and what he expects from the fireside chat with Dr. Emile Bienvenu.

Global epidemics come in many forms and attract different kinds of attention depending on the severity of the diseases. But as Fathimah’s research demonstrates, there’s a risk that comes with giving too little attention to epidemics that don’t have immediate life altering/threatening effects. It’s for this exact reason that obesity is often overlooked in terms of severity. In the short term, obesity isn’t life threatening perse, but over time, the complications of obesity become progressively more dangerous and ultimately life threatening. With around 40 percent of the global population being overweight and 13 percent suffering from obesity, Fathimah’s recent PhD research on the topic might prove invaluable in the future.

Maria Yazdanbakhsh, Professor of Parasitology at the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), has been awarded an ERC Advanced Grant of 2.5 million euros. She will investigate why people in Africa and Southeast Asia respond less to certain vaccines than Europeans. Her goal is to find a solution for low vaccine responses.

“This is an achievement in alignment with the mission of VODAN-Africa to generate continuous, real-time, high velocity clinical observational patient data from resource-limited communities that have not been well represented in digital health data. The key feature is that the data produced remains in the health facility only. It will not leave the health facility. Since the data is machine-actionable the input of the data only happens once; in the deployable architecture, the data is used for four parallel use cases” (VODAN to Africa, 2022).

How do we make sure that local research and innovations have real global impact? How can we create an environment that is conducive for interaction between academic, public and private partners here in Leiden, and most importantly, around the world? Only a few questions that will be discussed during the ‘Global Impact in Health’ symposium taking place on Monday the 30th of May from 10:00 – 16:30h. Read more about the symposium below and how you can join!

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is one of those hot topics that we all talk about, but at the same time we have a hard time grasping what AI really is and how it is implemented in our daily lives. And understandably so, AI is a very complex and extensive topic. Needless to say, implementing AI models is difficult, because so many (ethical) variables play a role for a successful, acceptable, and most of all beneficial implementation. It’s one of the most interesting fields to study and that’s exactly what LUMC PhD candidates Marieke van Buchem and Anne de Hond are doing, so that they can contribute to better validation and implementation of AI models in medical care. Their exchange to Stanford University helps them move forward with their research.

Long have we awaited the moment that we could welcome international students at the LUMC again. Due to COVID, all student mobility was cancelled for over 1,5 years. And despite still having regulations in place, especially during the first semester of the academic year 2021-2022, it was refreshing to cautiously welcome international students again. We’re so pleased to see that the students who came to Leiden had a fun, meaningful and above all, educational experience. In a questionnaire, they’ve given us an insight into how they experienced student mobility during these strange times.

From the 24^th till the 28^th of January, the LUMC organized the Data Ethics winter school on behalf of the Eurolife consortium, an international network consisting of 9 European universities. The network focuses predominantly on biomedical sciences, but also related subjects in the field of Life Sciences & Health. We are very proud of the amazing success of the winter school and the exciting responses we’ve had from students. In this article we would like to share the experience of one of the participating students, Jonneke Bouwhuis.

‘How do we create a sustainable hospital?’ This is the main question the Interdisciplinary Thesis Lab ‘Sustainable Hospitals’ centers around. On February 9th, eleven (including international) master students have started their master thesis research project related to this very question. Medical Delta’s Thesis Lab and the LDE Centre for Sustainability will supervise these students during their research.

LUMC Global welcomes yet another PhD candidate to the program. Gynaecologist to be, Anne Noll, joins the LUMC Global initiative to work on a very unique and challenging international research project on fetal therapy, part of the field of  obstetric care. In a special collaboration between fetal therapy expert centers Karolinska University Hospital (Stockholm, Sweden), UZ Leuven (Leuven, Belgium) and LUMC, Anne will try to create a better understanding on selective growth restriction in identical twins, to ultimately contribute to improved diagnostic monitoring, management and outcome prediction of these pregnancies.

Wednesday, December 15th 2021, marks a special day as medical journal The Lancet Global Health published a new mixed-method study on mapping low-resource contexts to prepare for lung health interventions in four countries, conducted by the ‘FRESH AIR collaborators’. This international research group, led by the LUMC, found worryingly that chronic respiratory disease (CRD) often gets misinterpreted as an infection, especially as tuberculosis. The study found three themes to address that might prove pivotal for adequate implementation of interventions for CRD.

This year, multiple LUMC Global PhD projects have been set up to stimulate international research collaborations in important topics within Life Sciences & Health. It is our hope that these international research projects will ultimately benefit global healthcare. It is with this idea in mind that we also welcomed Indonesian nephrologist Ni Made Hustrini as an LUMC Global PhD student. She will try to set important steps in unraveling the underlying causes of chronic kidney disease in Indonesia and in understanding a better way to manage it.

Last month we kicked off the pilot study on housing and health, set up by the TU Delft | Global Initiative, Leiden Center for Applied Bioscience (LCAB) and LUMC Global in which 6 groups, consisting of students from all institutes, joined forces to analyse the correlation between spatial conditions of residential neighbourhoods and buildings, and health. All groups developed a comparative analysis of two neighbourhoods in The Hague, with each group looking at different neighbourhoods. Last week, on November 10, they presented their findings and suggestions on the central theme: how do we build a pandemic proof and healthy city?

Last week the Week of Indonesia-Netherlands Education and Research took place. LUMC professor Maria Yanzdanbakhsh joined to speak during the event ‘Climate Change and Climate Adaptation: How Can Policy be Informed by Knowledge?’ alongside Minister of Health of the Republic of Indonesia,Budi Gunadi Sadikin; Clémence Ross-van Dorp; Dr Sudirman Nasir and Dr Gunadi.

The African-European Tuberculosis Consortium (AE-TBC) is an international multisite group of African and European researchers who investigate the use of host biosignatures for the diagnosis of active TB disease. For over ten years, the LUMC groups of Infectious Diseases and Cell & Chemical Biology from Prof Annemieke Geluk and Dr Paul Corstjens respectively, have been partners of the EDCTP consortia for tuberculosis (among which AE-TBC). The AE-TBC recently won the prize for ‘Outstanding Research Team 2020, awarded by the EDCTP.

The curiosity and enthusiasm about a specific topic can drive scientists halfway across the world. Joana Brás Gomes Nunes’ interest in cell metabolism brought her via Portugal and the United States to Leiden. And she is certainly not the only one: The LUMC has researchers from over 70 different countries employed. What drives them, and what is the advantage of such an international career?

This WINNER (Week of Indonesia Netherlands Education and Research) event is a follow-up of the Climate Adaptation Summit (CAS), January 2021, and explores forms of cooperation between and within nations to make climate adaptation work for everyone, with a focus on Indonesia and the Netherlands. We will build on the successful international establishment of the Adaptation Action Agenda with high level keynotes. Then, two forms of Indonesia – Netherlands collaboration in urban and rural areas will be highlighted. Finally, we dive into the prerequisites for successful climate adaptation in a session focused on a priority for both the Netherlands and Indonesia: water resilience.

Together with the TU Delft | Global Initiative, LUMC Global has set up a collaborative research workshop which kicks off today. Students enrolled in the workshop will partake in a study to primarily analyze the correlation between spatial conditions of residential neighbourhoods and buildings, and health. They will develop a comparative analysis of two neighbourhoods in The Hague.

Edouard Fu, PhD student at the Department of Clinical Epidemiology at the LUMC, uses big data to study the effectiveness and safety of kidney, diabetes and heart failure treatments. With a Rubicon grant from NWO, Edouard will conduct further research at Harvard Medical School over the next two years.

LUMC Global has set out to stimulate international connections in (bio)medical research and education to contribute to global healthcare. Setting up several PhD projects has been one of the key elements in doing this and we’re very proud we’ve been able to set up as many as eight different PhD projects. We are now looking for a Global PhD candidate in Obstetrics in a collaborative projects with Karolinska Institutet, Sweden and UZ Leuven, Belgium.

Studying abroad can be an exciting and valuable experience for all students wishing to broaden their perspective on the world and their working profession. It also contributes to building an international profile and gaining the interest of international companies. But how do you arrange your study abroad adventure? In the video in this article, we give you some general information on arranging your study abroad adventure, check it out!

Truth be told, the LUMC Global program has been running for a bit more than a year now, but we want to look back at some of our achievements in our slightly more than a year anniversary. Because it has been quite a year for the LUMC Global Initiative in which we have set up multiple projects stimulating international collaboration to work on global health(care) challenges in (bio)medical education and research.

Leiden professor of Cellular Immunology of Parasitic Infections Maria Yazdanbakhsh receives the prestigious NWO Spinoza Prize this year. This border-crossing scientist contributes to more effective vaccines against parasitic infections and better medication for inflammatory diseases. She will spend the 2.5 million euros she receives on, among other things, developing young talent, with an emphasis on diversity.

By developing an improved health data management system, the Virus Outbreak Data Network (VODAN)-Africa research team is enabling local and global distributed access to crucial data required to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, future disease outbreaks and general disease conditions.

For many students from the LUMC’s academic programmes, studying abroad is an indispensable experience. Doing part of your studies abroad is a special experience, not only because of the sense of adventure of being abroad, also to develop a broader perspective on Life Sciences & Health, a highly international field. So, you can imagine the LUMC’s International Office’s struggle to have to tell students ‘no’ for a study experience abroad in the midst of the corona pandemic. In addition, the many lockdowns worldwide increased the workload dramatically for the International Office. Evelien Hack, Head of the International Office and Sandra van Deursen, senior administrative assistant, share how corona has impacted studying abroad.

Farid Kurniawan’s enrolment as a PhD student at the LUMC is a perfect example of how the LUMC aims to attract talented Indonesian students early on and develop their talents through international research projects. The young physician started his PhD project in April, 2019 after first getting introduced to the LUMC in 2016 and 2017 through the Half Minor Cellular Therapies and a research internship at the Department of Parasitology. Let’s zoom in on some of the interesting work Farid is doing at the LUMC and how he hopes to make a difference in his home country of Indonesia.

The Wistar Institute and Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) have formalized a memorandum of understanding to explore a postdoctoral training exchange program in immunology, cancer research and vaccine biology.

Twice a year, the Research Mobility Fellowships of the European Joint Programme on Rare Diseases (EJP RD) from the European Reference Networks (ERN) get awarded to prominent researchers or MDs to develop new skills and expertise in a European institution specialized in research on rare diseases.

On June 23rd, we organized the first LUMC Global Community Meeting on establishing successful Sino-Dutch collaborations in (bio)medical research and education.

Creating new sustainable relationships between the Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and international counterparts is one of the core elements incorporated in the LUMC Global strategy. Through multiannual partnerships in (bio)medical research and education, we aim to contribute to global healthcare improvement. We’re therefore very excited to announce our first Global PhD candidate, Jeremia J. Pyuza, who’s at the centre of a newly set-up collaboration between Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Centre (KCMC), Tanzania and the LUMC.

In 2018, Prasanna Iyengar was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie – Postdoctoral Fellowship (MSCA-IF) to implement a research project on bladder cancer at Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) in The Netherlands. This two-year fellowship allowed Prasanna to pursue an independent line of research as a senior postdoc, thereby elucidating mechanisms of bladder cancer metastasis as well as further developing his career track.

In the summer of 2021, the LUMC will host numerous summer schools on varying topics. All summer courses will be online due to COVID, making it possible for international students to join more easily!

On April 15th, LUMC Global and the LUMC’s Obstetrics and Gynecology department organized a very successful expert webinar Innovations in Fetal Therapy. We have published the entire recording of the event online!

Leiden will be the European City of Science in 2022! Leiden will be the stage for European Knowledge and science, giving great momentum to the whole of the Netherlands!

Read more about the event here

The Leiden University Medical Center (LUMC) and Ixaka Ltd. have announced a research collaboration on 30 March 2021, to better understand REX-001, Ixaka’s lead cell therapy product. The project will be led by Professor Paul Quax, Head of Experimental Vascular Surgery at the LUMC, to support accelerated development of REX-001 in Phase III clinical trials for the treatment of chronic limb-threatening ischemia (CLTI).

The Janssen-Cilag International N.V COVID-19 vaccine has received authorization for emergency use by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) on March 11. Developed with fundamental support from the Molecular Virology group of the Leiden University Medical Centre (LUMC), it is the fourth vaccine to be administered in the European Union. The Netherlands has ordered more than 11 million vaccine doses.

The DROP-IN gamma probe technology developed at the LUMC has received CE certification. This means that hospitals throughout Europe can use the device. The probe improves the detection of tumors during operation procedures with a surgical robot. The technology is currently being commercialized by Crystal Photonics. What started off as an internship project has turned into a product that has reached the market. What did this process look like?

Today’s health care system faces many challenges. The new interdisciplinary two years master PHM will train you to contribute to a more integrated health care system.

What does this master’s programme entail?

Health care faces ageing populations, rising health care costs, fragmented health care supply and advancing medical technologies and IT systems. Health care professionals will require new competences to meet these challenges in the current health care system. Population Health Management (PHM) is a broadly based response to the challenges and has emerged worldwide as an important strategy for health care