Title Promoter Affiliations Abstract "Sabbatical leave within the framework of animal ecology." "Erik Matthysen" "Evolutionary ecology group (EVECO)" "The purpose of this sabbatical leave is to answer a number of research questions using state-of-the-art statistical analyses on long-term datasets. This includes analyses of survival, population structure and heritability of traits. In particular I will study changes in life-history traits because of climate change and the role of genetic variation therein." "A high-resolution and high-sensitivity hybrid small animal PET-CT system for combined molecular/functional and anatomical preclinical imaging in neurology, oncology and cardiology." "Koen Van Laere" "Biomedical MRI, Radiopharmaceutical Research, Nuclear Medicine & Molecular Imaging" "Molecular imaging allows non-invasive in vivo visualization, characterization and quantification of biological and pathophysiological processes that can be longitudinally monitored in specific (transgenic) animal models of human diseases in a physiological environment. The hybrid small animal PET-CT system will provide molecular information with high sensitivity and submillimeter resolution co-registered with anatomical information within one single imaging session. This will enable more accurate image quantification and will reduce influences of physiological changes compared to the current sequential imaging scheme on two systems. Applications of the hybrid small animal PET-CT scanner in central nervous system disorders, cardiology and oncology research will provide much more detailed information on disease mechanisms, identify novel (smaller) targets and assess therapeutic/pharmacological interventions. In addition, this technique will play a major role in development of new radiotracers and will considerably accelerate and improve the tracer development process so that new PET tracers can be translated to the clinic much faster and can be utilized for drug development." "Evolution and ecology of zoonotic wildlife pathogens." "Herwig Leirs" "Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Czech Academy of Sciences, Université de Montpellier, Institute of Tropical Medicine Antwerp (ITM), Université Libre de Bruxelles, Robert Koch Institute, Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine, Evolutionary ecology group (EVECO)" "In this network we bring together scientists studying various aspects of the evolution and ecology of viruses occurring in (African) wildlife. Among these wildlife-viruses are zoonoses: infections that naturally circulate in non-human animals and occasionally infect humans. Some of these zoonotic infections do not efficiently transmit among people, so that their appearance and that of their associated disease in humans relies mostly on the presence and repeated contact between the natural animal hosts and people and the human pathological response. These types of infections are typically studied by ecologists, immunologists and pathologists. Other zoonotic infections may not reach humans very often, when for example they naturally occur in more elusive animals. In most instances these zoonotic infections reach a dead end in humans, but some may spread efficiently among people as soon as they emerge in humans, such as the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. Such pathogens are either already by chance 'pre-adapted' to the human host, or can quickly evolve the necessary properties to efficiently infect and spread among humans. Epidemiologists and evolutionary biologists then typically study these latter types of infections. To prepare public health actions to rapidly respond to each of these different types of zoonotic viruses, a better understanding of how these viruses behave in natural settings before reaching humans is required. The key to this understanding lies in the patterns of their evolutionary histories, natural transmission ecology and the variation in response elicited by various hosts. Furthermore, many infections cannot be strictly categorized in either of the two types mentioned above, but reach and cause disease in humans as the result of a complex interplay between natural-host ecology, pathogen adaptive evolution, epidemiology, and the immunological and pathological response in humans. Research on those kinds of infections could thus strongly benefit from a synergy between different disciplines: animal fieldwork, molecular biology, genomics, bioinformatics, ecological and epidemiological modeling, computational phylogenetics and immunology. Flanders contains world-class research groups studying these aspects of zoonotic and other wildlife viruses, and we wish to ensure the continuation of this knowledge capacity and further build to expand it. To achieve this, we need to exchange research ideas, expertise-specific scientific insights, animal samples, and skill- and toolsets for field, laboratory and analytical work; and we need to train our early-career researchers with the necessary sets of state-of-the art skills. We aim to formalize a Scientific Research Network on the ecology and evolution of wildlife and zoonotic viruses between research groups with complimentary expertise but overlapping research interests. The objective of this network is to stimulate interaction between complementary Flemish research groups and mutually benefit from existing international networks. The ultimate goal is to maintain and further increase the quality of the research in Flanders and develop partnerships for joint interdisciplinary projects and generally stimulate network-building for early-career researchers in infectious disease ecology and evolution. We will realise this networking through the organization of annual summer workshops. These advanced-level workshops will primarily be targeted at early-career postdoc researchers from the partner groups, offering exposure to different research angles to understand similar ultimate questions in zoonotic infection evolutionary ecology. Further inspiration will be provided by senior network partners and additional invited top international scientists. The workshops will also offer hands-on opportunities to learn different skills and toolsets. These can then be further elaborated through exchange visits to the international partners for training in state-of-the-art analysis techniques." "The evolutionary ecology of manipulative and deceptive signals in insect societies" "Tom Wenseleers" "Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity Conservation" "Animal communication signals typically evolve because of a shared interest between the signaling and receiver individuals. In the present project, I will make the first systematic empirical and theoretical study of another class of signals, where the receiver instead is partly manipulated or “deceived”. To do so, I will use insect societies as my key model system, and study how four classes of manipulative signals that have been previously proposed can evolve and be stably maintained. Key aspects that will be studied include exploitation of pre-existing receiver physiology and the costs of evolving counter-resistance strategies. Overall, this will provide key insights into the evolution of manipulation and deceit in animal societies, and how this affect the resolution of intrafamily conflicts. " "Trajectories of newly emerging evolving metacommunities – an interdisciplinary research project in empirical ecology and biostatistics" "Thomas Neyens" "Leuven Biostatistics and Statistical Bioinformatics Centre (L-BioStat), Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity Conservation" "Recent efforts to unravel the assembly of species communities have resulted in limited amounts of explained variation, suggesting that important processes are overlooked and that statistical methods to detect these processes are lacking. This project capitalizes on a unique opportunity provided by a nature restoration project, where several clusters of new ponds are being created. From their creation onwards, all ponds will be subjected to detailed monitoring, including the quantification of abiotic conditions, community assembly through conventional and eDNA techniques, population assembly through genomics, and animal vector visits through camera trapping. In parallel, we will develop statistical methodology to comprehensively model evolving metacommunities and how alleles and species assemble through space and time. We will advance state-of-the-art Joint Species Distribution Models to simultaneously consider co-occurrence patterns in alleles and species, imperfect detection in metacommunity eDNA data, spatial pond connectivity through animal vectors, and the occurrence of legacy effects. We will carry out experiments to quantify priority effects impacting community and population assembly. The synergy between innovative ecology and statistics to understand complex natural mechanisms will yield invaluable insights into the dynamics of evolving metacommunities in nature and will further advance developments in the widely applied Joint Species Distribution Modelling framework." "Prioritizing Lyme borreliosis risk areas for forest and nature management based on novel insights in tick ecology." "Agentschap Natuur en Bos, Province of Antwerp, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Ghent University, Evolutionary ecology group (EVECO)" "Cases of Lyme borreliosis, a disease transmitted to humans by the castor bean tick (Ixodes ricinus), have increased in recent years. To take efficient action it is important to know at which locations, frequently visited by humans, infected ticks can be found. Other studies have shown that certain forest types contain more ticks than others but it is not known what determines the spatial distribution of ticks within a suitable area. In this PhD project, I will investigate the distribution of ticks within forest, with respect to the amount of visitors frequent each location. Subsequently I will examine why ticks end up in this specific location. One aspect that may lead to the observed tick distribution is the location where ticks drop off their hosts after feeding on them, be it deer or smaller animals. To look into this, I will investigate where in our study areas hosts spend their time and where ticks prefer to drop off. Lastly, we will determine in the field which circumstances lead to high mortality among ticks. In these circumstances, there is lesser for intervention. Our findings will be summarized and translated into management recommendations for forest managers and policy makers. This will allow them to organise and manage forests in a more efficient way and reduce tick densities more efficiently. This will save time and money and minimize public health risks for visitors." "The interplay of conditional movement and size specific ecology for eco-evolutionary dynamics of spatial populations" "Dries Bonte" Biology "The project aims to study how conditional movement and local demographics determine the eco-evolutionary dynamics of spatially structured populations. It will integrate advanced conditional movement ecology and state-of-the-art size structured population theory with spatial population ecology and life history trait evolution. The research program will combine individual level measurements, multi-generational population and selection experiments, common garden assays and mathematical modelling." "Interactions between natural stressors and pollutant exposure in nestling birds of prey: Feathers as a novel integrated measure of pollutant exposure, feeding ecology and stress." "Marcel Eens" "Toxicological Centre, Behavioural Ecology & Ecophysiology" "The main aim of this project is to study the impact of interactions between natural stressors and anthropogenic stress, caused by environmental contamination with OHCs, on the health of nestling birds of prey in (sub)Arctic regions. Birds of prey from (sub)Arctic regions have several characteristics that make them very useful to study OHC exposure in combination with natural stressors (see methodology)." "From Truth to Ecology Reassessing the History of the Senses, 1250-1750" "Andrea Robiglio, Jan Papy" "De Wulf-Mansion Centre for Ancient, Medieval and Renaissance Philosophy, Latin Literature, Leuven" "This project investigates the paradigm shift from truth to ecology that occurred in perception theories from 1250 to 1750 – in the period, namely, from the adoption of an Aristotelian curriculum by European universities to the Encyclopédie. In the course of the Early Modern age, I argue, the time-honoured Aristotelian claim that the senses provide insight into the real properties of bodies was replaced by a quite different understanding of sense-perception, as primarily aimed to secure and foster the perceivers’ survival and well-being. Doing away with the idea that the senses portray the world as it is, a growing number of early-modern thinkers tried to explain how the world of physics is adjusted and distorted in sense-perception so as to present perceivers belonging to different species with different habitats, according to their different vital needs. The project investigates the manifold and competing reasons behind this shift in the understanding of sense-perception, locating its sources in late Scholastic commentators and novatores, in the newly-rediscovered ancient sceptical arguments and in Descartes’ philosophy. The projects further investigates the resistance this shift of the senses from truth to ecology encountered, and the reasons for its final success and diffusion well beyond philosophical circles, as well as its far-reaching epistemological, metaphysical and even theological implications.  " "Biology and ecology of bacterial and fungal human biofilms." "Patrick Van Dijck" "Molecular Biotechnology of Plants and Micro-organisms, Centre of Microbial and Plant Genetics, Animal Physiology and Neurobiology, Biology, Kulak Kortrijk Campus, Division of Soil and Water Management" "The main of goal of this research community is to understand bacterial and fungal biofilm formation with the aim to develop better ways to combat these biofilms. The development of a biofilm comprises several steps of which adhesion is the important first step. Further biofilm development requires cell-cell communication which in polymicrobial biofilms may occur between cells from different species. We will also investigate why cells within a biofilms are more tolerant towards antifungal drugs in comparison to plantonic cells. In this aspect we will focus on persister cells in order to understand their appearance and the underlying mechanism of their resistance. Several Flamish partners will collaborate with three foreign groups."