Title Promoter Affiliations Abstract "BOF PhD: Label free imaging of nanoparticles for a study of their impact on biological processes in dendritic cells." "Marcel AMELOOT" "Bio-Physics, Theory lab, Materials Physics" "Over the past years nanotechnology caused a technological revolution with a multitude of applications, also in the biomedical world due to specific properties of nanomaterials and nanoparticles (NPs). E.g. the transport of NPs in the human body is driven by active processes which turns them into interesting targeting drug delivery tools. Another property is their very high surface-volume ratio and their explicit surface reactivity: when put into a biological matrix NPs receive a protein corona which influences the responses of biological systems which are exposed to them. The proposed PhD project has two aims. Firstly to implement label free imaging methods by the use of NPs, secondly to study the impact of NPs on biological functions of dendritic cells. Part 1 consists of the exploration of NP types which will be used in the research. It was decided to use biocompatible and label-free NPs which can be detected in biological tissue by fluorescence-based techniques. An advantage of this type of NPs is the absence of fluorescence bleaching during observation which opens the possibility to track their behavior over longer time periods. Both nanodiamonds and non-organic particles are suited for this purpose. Part 2 of the PhD project will study the functional impact of NPs on stem cell-derived dendritic cells (DC). These DC are a useful in vitro model for the study of allergy because of the capacity of DC to process allergens and present them to the immune system. The ability of the DC to fulfill this task depends on the normal functioning of microtubules. As a first task the interaction of NPs with the microtubules will be assessed by the mentioned imaging method. Further, the influence on the immunological functioning of the DC as a result of a co-exposure to an allergen and NPs will be quantified by adding molecular measuring methods to the imaging. Additionally, this research gives the possibility to monitor the effect of NPs on the differentiation process of DC from stem cells which occurs during the in vitro culture." "Computer design and engineering of biological processes." "Bart Nicolai" "Mechatronics, Biostatistics and Sensors (MeBioS)" "The IOF program CADcracker aims to facilitate the interaction and collaboration between researchers and stakeholders in the agrofood chain on innovative computational solutions to understand, design, optimize and control processes and products in the agrofood chain. Computer aided design and engineering (CADE) tools, from numerical simulation to artificial intelligence, are developed and applied for optimizing existing and novel agrofood applications. The research-based approaches improve the understanding of how the biochemistry, physics and quality of the product change as affected by conditions and processing along the supply chain from field to consumer, resulting in innovative solutions. CADcracker thereto initiates and coordinates both strategic and applied research benefiting stakeholders in the agrofood sector." "Replacement of confocal fluorescence microscope for visualisation of biological processes in humans and animals" "Hans Nauwynck" "Department of Veterinary and Biosciences, Department of Translational Physiology, Infectiology and Public Health, Department of Internal Medicine, Reproduction and Population Medicine" "The confocal fluorescence microscope Leica TCS SP2 Laser Scanning Spectral Confocal System, localized in the Laboratory of Virology, Faculty of Veterinary Medicine is a device that is daily used by different users of the Faculties of Veterinary Medicine and Medicine and Health Sciences for the research on different biological processes (pathogenesis, immunopathology, embryology, …). It is the only confocal microscope at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. The reservation occurs via a digital system. The present device is 12 years old and due for replacement. The costs for reparations are rising and the company technicians mentioned that soon, it will be difficult/impossible to get spare parts. The new device will be able to simultaneously capture emission light from different fluorochromes which is not possible with the current device. This will allow to work faster and to determine colocalization in a more precise way." "Knowledge discovery for biological processes by integraing heterogeneous data sources" "Yves Van de Peer" "Department of Plant Biotechnology and Bioinformatics" "In this project we want to explore how automated data mining and text mining techniques can be developed to provide researchers with automatically generated summaries to enable them to gather as much information as possible about a specific biological process or a group of genes. This project aims to use the richness of current data sources more efficiently." "Compost application and the interaction between compost-and native soil fauna: nematodes as indicator of biological compost maturity and soil food web processes." "Wim Bert" Biology "Experiments will elucidate whether thoroughly characterized composts, differentiated based on their nematode communities, have different effects on soil properties and nematode assemblages. An ecometagenetics approach will distinguish between compost- and native assemblages and reveal if the nematodes in compost directly contribute to the nematode community in the soil vs. that observed effects are due to the overall stimulation of the soil fauna." "Development and analysis of spatially explicit models of biological processes." "Jan Baetens" "Department of Data analysis and mathematical modelling" "Even though spatially explicit models have become more widely appreciated, there is still no framework that allows for their systematic analysis, calibration and validation. Hence, the main objective of this project is to establish such a framework starting from the first steps already taken in this direction and involving equation-free methods, approximate Bayesian computation and dynamical system measures." "Molecular and cell biological analysis of the role of the PDZ proteins in in tumorgeassocierde processes." "Jan Gettemans" "Department of Biochemistry" "geen abstract" "Unraveling the natural isotopic fractionation of Fe accompanying different homeostatic processes for understanding the effect of impaired Fe regulation on its isotopic composition in biological fluids." "Frank Vanhaecke" "Department of Food Technology, Safety and Health, Department of Chemistry, Department of Clinical chemistry, microbiology and immunology, Department of Food safety and food quality, Department of Analytical chemistry" "Understanding the source bio-mechanisms of Fe isotopic fractionation in the human body is crucial knowledge for developing diagnostic tools of one's Fe status. Now, quantification of serum ferritin levels is relied on, but results may be often misleading as they can be affected by inflammation, infection and liver disorders. Isotopic analysis of blood/serum Fe is gaining potential as a robust and reliable indicator of the Fe status. However, the Fe metabolic processes that lead to isotopic fractionation are not fully understood. In this project, different cell lines will be used for the in vitro study of Fe isotopic fractionation accompanying Fe fluxes at the most relevant metabolic points. The correlation of several medical parameters with the Fe isotopic composition of serum samples of hemochromatosis type IV patients will be evaluated to validate the in vitro findings. Brain Fe homeostasis will be tackled in parallel to evaluate the oxidative role of metals in the brain. Paired serum/CSF samples from healthy and Alzheimer´s disease patients will be available with the aim of finding a suitable biomarker for an early diagnosis, when therapeutic treatments are more relevant. Methods for separating Fe-bound proteins and non-bound Fe in such samples will be optimized for next isotopic analysis of the fractions to evaluate the contribution of the predominant species to the total isotopic composition and the potential of species-specific isotopic analysis as a diagnostic tool." "Interactions between ecological and evolutionary processes along a sub continental climate gradient." "Luc Brendonck" "Ecology, Evolution and Biodiversity Conservation" "Met dit project wil ik verder bouwen op de resultaten van mijn doctoraalstudie waarin ik interacties tussen metapopulatie en metagemeenschapsstructuur heb onderzoch op lokale schaal in één poelcluster. Nu wil ik nagaan in welke mate dezelfde concepten ook werkzaam zijn op veel grotere schaal en hoe die eventueel variëren volgens een omgevingsgradiënt. Concreet wil ik convergenties onderzoeken in patronen van (genetische en morfologische) variatie op het niveau van (meta)populaties van een modelsoort en patronen van variatie in de structuur van de corresponderende (meta)gemeenschappen in clusters van tijdelijke rotspoelen langsheen een klimaatgradiënt in West-Australië. Specifieke vraagstellingen hierbij zijn: 1. Wat is het patroon van genetische variatie binnen en tussen lokale en regionale populaties van een Anostraca modelsoort (Branchinella longirostris, Crustacea: Branchiopoda) in rotspoelclusters langsheen de klimaatgradiënt? 2. In welke mate zijn de patronen van intra- en interpopulatie genetische diversiteit in de Anostraca modelsoort convergent met deze van soortendiversiteit binnen en tussen de (meta)gemeenschappen waar ze deel van uit maakt? 3. Wat is het relatieve belang van de ruimtelijke (positie in gradiënt, aantal patches, connectiviteit, isolatie) en omgevingsfactoren (hydroperiode, waterkwaliteit, lokale biotische kenmerken) in het bepalen van de structuur van de metagemeenschappen en metapopulaties op verschillende ruimtelijke schalen (volledige gradiënt, regionale habitatclusters)." "Is it really all about knowledge? Educators' perception on the process of changing ecological behavior." "Jelle Boeve-de Pauw" EduBROn "Researchers agree that the environmental problems we face as a society are due to maladaptive human behavior. Environmental education (EE) is seen as a key instrument in reversing those problems. EE however does, however, seldom impact on children ecological behavior. Through a qualitative design we study educators' perception of the process of changing children's ecological behavior, as a mediator in the effectiveness of EE."