Marine biologist Prof. Dr. Nicole de Voogd is starting a second term as professor at Leiden University. Her new appointment is at the IBL, the university's biology institute.
Useful for humans
Sponges are not only colorful and important for water quality, they also contain a very wide range of chemical substances that can also be useful for humans. 'Sponges are in a soup of germs 24 hours a day, have to prevent themselves from being eaten by other animals, and fight for every square centimeter on the coral reef. They need to produce chemicals for all these functions, and those substances can also have a medicinal effect on humans, for example.'
Institute ofBiology Leiden
It is no great surprise that she is continuing her professorship at the Institute of Biology Leiden. She has been working with researchers there for years, for example in the MARBLES project, which studies special microbes from sponges.
Professorby special appointment
De Voogd is a professor by special appointment on behalf of Naturalis Biodiversity Center. This is the Dutch research institute for biodiversity. There are approximately 140 researchers employed, 13 of whom are professors at various universities in the Netherlands and Belgium.
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