Name "Genetics, Pharmacology and Physiopathology of Heart, Blood Vessels and Skeleton" "Hypertension and Cardiovascular Epidemiology" "Tatiana Kouznetsova" "The Research Unit Hypertension and Cardiovascular Epidemiology (HCVE) coordinated influential clinical trials, published in top-ranking journals, such as the Systolic Hypertension in Europe Trial (Syst-Eur), the Ambulatory blood Pressure monitoring and Treatment of Hypertension trial (APTH) and the Treatment of hypertension based on Home or Office blood Pressure trial (THOP).  HCVE led the Data Safety and Monitoring Board of large clinical trials, including the Systolic Hypertension in China trial (Syst-China), the Randomised Olmesartan and Diabetes Microalbuminuria Prevention Study (ROADMAP) and the Hypertension in the very Elderly trial (HYVET).  HCVE organised the Ouabain and Adducin for Specific Intervention on Sodium in HyperTension trial (OASIS-HT) and the Newer vs. Older Antihypertensive Agents in African Hypertensive patients (NOAAH) trial, which was running at six clinical sites in sub-Saharan Africa.  HCVE played a pivotal role in delineating the deleterious adverse health effects of environmental exposure of the Flemish population to heavy metals, such as lead and cadmium, and more recently to air pollutants (fine particulate).The current research interests of HCVE focus on the clinical application of omics (genomics, epigenomics, proteomics and metabolomics), population science, and the treatment of cardiovascular disease, in particular hypertension.  In 1985, HCVE initiated the still ongoing FLEmish Study on ENvironment Genes and Health Outcomes (FLEMENGHO), which served as a template for other population studies across Europe, including the European Project on Genes in Hypertension (EPOGH) and the Swiss Kidney Project on Genes in Hypertension (SKIPOGH), in China (Jingning County), and more recently in Montevideo, Uruguay and Lugbe (Abuja), Nigeria.  In 1998, HCVE participated in several FP7 projects, including INGENIOUS HYPERCARE, HYPERGENES, EU-MASCARA and HOMAGE.  Within H2020, HCVE is the coordinator of the ERA-CVD project PROACT (2018) on the prediction and pathophysiology of acute coronary syndrome, using omics technologies. HCVE set up several international research consortia.  IDACO (International Database on Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring in relation to Cardiovascular Outcome) and IDHOCO (International Database of HOme blood pressure in relation to Cardiovascular Outcome) focus on the clinical applicability of ambulatory blood pressure monitoring or the self-measured blood pressure at home in risk stratification, using data from prospective population studies.  HCVE started the European Network coordinating research on REnal denervation (ENCOReD) and in 2017 published the pilot phase of the INSPiRED (Investigator-Steered Project on intravascular Renal Denervation for Management of Drug-Resistant Hypertension) trial.The European Research Council Advanced Researcher project EPLORE (Epidemiological Left ventricular Outcomes Research in Europe) focused on left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in the general population and was followed-up by a Proof-of-Concept project granted by the European Research Council on the use of urinary proteomics for the prediction of heart transplantation outcomes (uPROPHET – Urinary PROteomics in Predicting HEart Transplantation outcomes). HCVE coordinated PREMATCH (PREMATurity as predictor of children's Cardiovascular-renal Health), which was a case-control study comparing the health of children at 11 years, between those born with extremely low birth weight (" "Leuven Institute for Healthcare Policy" "Dirk De Ridder" "The Leuven Institute for Healthcare Policy consists of the following research groups:Patient Safety and QualityFinancing and Organisation Health Care ManagementCommunication in Health Care ManagementEthics of Health Care ManagementHealth Law " "Allergy and Clinical Immunology Research Group" "Dominique Bullens" "1. Allergy Clinical research, cohort based, on drug hypersensitivity Food allergy: clinical driven research into hidden allergens, co-factor enhanced food allergy, rare allergens (allergy to carmine, eatable insect allergens, WDEIA quality of life study etc…) Mastocytosis and hymenoptera venom allergy and treatment: clinical prospective follow-up over 30 years of a large database of patients with hymentoptera venom allergy – coincidence of mastocytosis – role of c-kit determination in peripheral blood in adults Children: (cutaneous vs systemic) mastocytosis: role of c-kit determination in peripheral blood; longitudinal study Role of innate lymphoid cells (ILCs) in chronic intestinal inflammation and intestinal fibrosis (ongoing): intended to broaden ILC research to allergic diseases (food allergy, eosinophilic oesophagitis)2. Tolerance induction Tolerance induction towards allergens: development of both natural (longitudinal studies) and immunotherapy-induced tolerance: study of the role of regulatory T cells and adaptive immunity in environmental and food allergy3. Upper and lower airway hyper-reactivity Study of the impact on epithelial barrier dysfunction on chronic airway inflammation, including interaction with environment, microbiome and therapeutic targets) Study of neuro-immune mechanisms underlying chronic airway inflammation Lower airway inflammation (in close collaboration with lab of pneumology):- in house murine models of allergic asthma- development of new mouse models for non-allergic asthma- role of innate immunity (and ILCs) vs adaptive immunity in those models Translational research in patients with upper and/or lower airway inflammation: immune cells and cytokines recruited/expressed in upper and lower airway tissue: cross-sectional studies and studies after experimental provocation (allergen, exercise, cold air,...) " "Academic Center for General Practice" "The department's research is organized within four large programmes with significant interactions between them: development of instruments and outcome measurement, educational research, clinical epidemiology and health care organisation research. It focusses on a broad range of clinical situations, with care for the elderly and diagnostics as its corner-stones. 1. Instrument development and outcome research Together with 11 other institutes form 6 other countries, the department was a partner within the European research group on health outcomes (ERGHO), which got a BIOMED grant to select and adapt health outcome procedures for use in ambulatory care. As a result of the succes of this work, a BIOMED 2 grant was offered to a new consortium, supporting clinical outcome in primary care for the elderly (SCOPE). Within this consortium, it is our task to makt outcome concepts usefull in a European setting. Original instruments are being developed for measuring functional status (ADMP), cognitive functioning (COGNIMETER) and autonomy (ASIEL). 2. Educational research Adaptations to both the undergraduate and postgraduate curriculum are evaluated by a group consisting of GPs as well as psychologists and educationalists. At this moment, special attention goes to skills training, to the personal fuctioning of the students and to the new licencing examination. 3. Clinical epidemiology a) Research on the diagnostic value of signs, symptoms and test results is a central line in this program with a special focus on differences between settings (e.g. General Practice versus hospitalized patients). Together with research groups all over the world, we are engaged in adapting medical knowledge developed in hospitals to a specific general practice based epidemiology. Field studies involve different methods for blood pressure measurement, chest pain, key symptoms for the diagnosis of cancer problem drinking and dermal mycosis. Within a Belgian-Dutch cooperation on meta-analysis of diagnostic tests (MEDION) and within the framework of the Cochrane Collaboration methods group on diagnostic and screening tests, methods are developped for the retrieval, quality scoring and statistical pooling of diagnostic studies. Diagnostic meta-analyses are being performed on kidney function tests, cervical screening, macroscopic haematuria and the early diagnosis of problem drinking. b) Research in Belgium is confronted with a lack of basic epidemiological data. Within a network of computerized general prtices (INTEGO), such data are collected and studied. The department is also actively involved in starting a regional cancer registry. Additionally, classical epidemiological studies involve determinants of allergy, problem drinking, dementia, cardiovascular risk factors and methycillin resistant Staphylococcus Aureus in homes for the elderly. c) In the past, intervention studies especially examined the impact of desk top testing (Reflotron, QBC) on clinical practice. Recent RCTs focus on the effect of a leaflet on anxiety and compliance in women with an abnormal cervical smear result and on the treatment of heavy sweating in cancer patients. 4. Health care organisation research In a recent report, the need of GPs in Belgium was examined. We intend to continue in examining the effect of (changes in) health care organisation on clinical practice." "Hydraulics and Geotechnics" "Patrick Willems" "The Hydraulics Section of KU Leuven is active in the following three domains: (1) urban and river hydrology and hydraulics (prof. Patrick Willems), (2) coastal and estuarine hydrodynamics (prof. Jaak Monbaliu), and (3) sediment mechanics (prof. Erik Toorman). Research priorities are:Urban and river hydrology and hydraulics. Key words: river hydrological and hydraulic modelling, urban drainage, hydrological extremes (floods, low flows, water quality), risk and uncertainty analysis, optimization, real-time forecasting and control, impact analysis of climate change, climate adaptation.Coastal and estuarine hydrodynamics. Key words: physical and numerical modelling; extreme waves; far and near field wave-current-structure interaction; in situ and remote sensing of the intertidal zone; wave-current-sediment interaction using coupled models; impact of climate change on land –ocean boundary processes.Sediment mechanics. Key words: numerical particulate transport modelling (sediments and microplastics), particle-turbulence interactions, high-concentration near-bottom sediment transport, flocculation of cohesive sediments, erosion and bed dynamics (bed shear strength under consolidation, fluidization and liquefaction), mud rheology, wave damping by fluid mud layers, coastal and estuarine morphodynamics, nautical bottom research, applications in dredging." "Clinical Pharmacology and Clinical Pharmacy" "Pieter Cornu" "KFAR focuses on two lines of research: 1) hypertension and 2) clinical pharmacological and clinical pharmaceutical research. KFAR is part of the research cluster ""Center for Cardiovascular Disease""." "Experimental Pharmacology" "Ilse Smolders" "In the research group Experimental Pharmacology the vast majority of scientists are trained in pharmacology and psychopharmacology. Our team has however a nice complementarity between a number of neuroscientists-pharmacologists engaged in preclinical research, a number of analytical experts looking for new sensitive methods for monitoring numerous neuromediators, brain biomarkers and pharmacological read-outs, and a number of colleagues who conduct mainly clinical pharmacological research. Our research group is part of the Center for Neuroscience (C4N) of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (https://c4n.research.vub.be/en) 1/ Preclinical research in EFAREFAR has expertise with rodent models of seizures and refractory epilepsy, stress-related mental disorders such as anxiety and major depressive disorder, Alzheimer’s disease, stroke and more recently also multiple sclerosis. The neuromethods we use on a daily basis range from in vivo to ex vivo and in vitro approaches. We have a range of in vivo paradigms to assess convulsive behavior, stress coping, anxiety- and depressive-like behavior, cognitive and motor function. We utilize electrophysiological approaches including in vivo telemetry-based 24h-EEG monitoring and ex vivo slice electrophysiology. We are renowned for in vivo monitoring of endogenous mediators from brain samples (e.g. microdialysis, COFM). We perform ex vivo analyses of rodent brain biomarkers and in vitro work on cultured neurons, astrocytes or microglia. We more recently started to work at the single cell level with patch clamp electrophysiology and transcriptomics. We make use of not only classical pharmacology and genetic models but adopt also novel state-of-the art technologies such as chemogenetics and photopharmacology and we recently developed expertise in transcranial electrical stimulation methods.The team of Ilse Smolders is mainly dedicated to find new therapeutic strategies for refractory epilepsy. Cognitive dysfunction is a core symptom in several neurological but also psychiatric disorders where it severely affects quality of life and predicts poor functional recovery. The team of Dimitri De Bundel studies rodent models in a range of behavioural tests to determine the mechanisms driving cognitive dysfunction and to explore potential therapeutic targets: NEUROMODULATION AND INFLAMMATION IN STRESS-RELATED MENTAL DISORDERS - VUB C4N.Ron Kooijman who is unfortunately approaching his retirement has always been a driving force for unravelling mechanisms of neuroinflammation in brain diseases: NEURO-INFLAMMATION, NEUROTROPHIC FACTORS AND NEUROPROTECTION - VUB C4N. 2/ Bioanalytical research in EFARNeuropharmacological research is strongly dependent on the availability of sensitive analysis methods for neurotransmitters, neuromodulators and biomarkers in brain samples of rodents. The development of newer, faster, better and more sensitive analysis methods is the challenge for the bioanalysts in our team, pharmacist Ann Van Eeckhaut and clinical biologist Ilse Weets. They apply targeted (e.g. sensitive LC-tandem mass spectrometry) and untargeted (e.g. metabolomics) analytical methods in their research. The team of Ann Van Eeckhaut focusses on bioanalytical challenges in basic neuroscience research. The teamof Ilse Weets performs biomarker research in the domains of metabolic diseases, diabetes and neurodegenerative disorders.  3/ Clinical pharmacological research with a link to neuroscienceThe use of medicinal products during pregnancy, lactation and in young children calls for special caution. A risk assessment requires knowledge of the specific pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics. The team of Eline Tommelein focuses on the use of medicines during these phases of life, but also on the adequate treatment of pregnancy- or breastfeeding-related disorders. Another line of research of Eline Tommelein are the drug-related problems that can arise when medicines are used differently from how they were intended and she specifically focusses on interactions with alcohol use and smoking.Sofie Brouwers interest in hypertension and how it can be regulated by the brain is long standing. She is interested how brain mediators interact to control sympathetic tone and blood pressure and may be important in the pathogenesis of many forms of hypertension: CNS AND BLOOD PRESSURE CONTROLE - VUB C4N. She also carries out research into pharmacological treatments of high blood pressure to improve the outcome of difficult-to-control hypertensive patients." "Gerhardt Lab" "Unravelling the fundamental principles and molecular regulation of Functional vascular patterning in development and disease." "Immunology and Microbiology" "The faculty departement Immunology and Microbiology (IMMI) groups the teaching on Immunology, Hematology and Microbiology of the faculty of Medicine.Most of the teaching staffmembers also have appointments in clinical departements of the university hospital (see AZ VUB). IMMI harbours several research groups clustered around two main topics: A/ Biology and treatment of haematological diseases. This activity is spread over the departments of Clinical Haematology and Stem Cell Transplantation, Clinical Laboratory of Haematology and Immunology, Blood Transfusion Centre Jette and the basic research laboratory at the faculty. Following specific subjects are under study: 1. Biology of multiple myeloma and related diseases; 2. Molecular and phenotypic follow-up of B cell malignancies during therapy; 3. Stem cell processing for clinical transplantation; 4. Analysis of phenotype of haemopoietic stem cells in health and disease; 5. Homing of mesenchymal stem cell in bone marrow 5. MHC dysregulation in haematological malignancies; 6. Molecular analysis of antithrombine deficiency. B/ Diagnosis, epidemiology and treatment of infectious diseases. This activity is located in the Clinical Laboratory for Microbiology of the AZ-VUB, that includes bacteriology, parasitology, mycology, virology and serology, as well as the AIDS reference laboratory and the center for molecular diagnosis. Following specific subjects are under study: 1. Study of Verocytotoxin-producing E.coli infections. 2. Study of Ureaplasma urealyticum infections. 3. Study of congenital toxoplasmosis. 4. New molecular techniques for diagnosis of infectious diseases. 5. Antimicrobial susceptibility of pathogens (among others anaerobic bacteria, HIV,...) 6. Surveillance of nosocomial infections. 7. Epidemiological typing of infectious agents. 8. Reference activity for the program 'Sentinel laboratories' of the service of epidemiology of the Scientific Institute of Public Health: B. pertussis, Legionella pneumophila, Verocytotoxin-producing E. coli and C. diphteriae."