Researcher

Aline Verstraeten

Research Expertise:I commit to doing (functional) genomics research in the field of connective tissue disorders, most prominently thoracic aortic aneurysm and dissection as well as skeletal dysplasia. Whereas at first glance these two groups of diseases might clinically seem oddly dissimilar, they have quite a lot in common from a genomics point of view. Different mutations in FBN1 (fibrillin-1) and BGN (biglycan), for example, cause both aortopathy and skeletal dysplasia. Moreover, significant overlap exists between the dysregulated pathways in both conditions; i.e. the TGF-β and BMP pathway. My comprehensive study of the entire disease continuum contributes synergistically to the further elucidation of the pathomechanisms and, hence, treatment of both separate entities. Within the connective tissue disease spectrum, I perform precision medicine-oriented projects using iPSC-derived cell and mouse models.

Keywords:CONNECTIVE TISSUE DISEASE, FUNCTIONAL GENOMICS, Biomedical sciences (incl. biochemistry)

Research techniques:Creation of iPSC-derived vascular smooth muscle cells Aorta dissection in mice Transthoracal echocardiography in mice Mouse breeding strategies Exome sequencing Genome sequencing Western blotting RT-qPCR