Projects

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Balance control in young children: a synergistic approach combining functional assessment and neuromechanics to unravel balance control mechanisms. University of Antwerp

Ann Hallemans
Movement Antwerp (MOVANT)
Adequate balance control is a prerequisite to achieve postures in early life and more complex gross and fine motor skills later in childhood. Balance deficits are a common problem in children with various pathologies such as cerebral palsy, developmental coordination disorder or sensorineural hearing loss. Because of the potential impact of these balance deficits on motor development, they need to be detected early in childhood. However, balance ...

Elucidating psychological and social risk factors for low back pain in highly physically active adolescents: a case study in female pre-professional dancers. University of Antwerp

Nathalie Roussel
Antwerp Research Institute for the Arts (ARIA), Movement Antwerp (MOVANT)
The general purpose of this study is to elucidate psychological and social risk factors for low back pain (LBP) in highly physically active adolescents. Using a qualitative research design, we will explore perceived causes (psychological and social) of LBP using female pre-professional dancers as a case study. This will lay the foundation for fundamental prospective studies examining causes of LBP in adolescents. Low back pain (LBP) is the ...

In vitro studies into the downstream regulatory mechanism whereby LRP4 and sclerostin together regulate Wnt siganling activity. University of Antwerp

Eveline Boudin
Medical genetics of obesity and skeletal disorders (MGENOS)
Previous genetic and functional studies have shown that the canonical Wnt signaling pathway is an important pathway in the regulation of bone formation. The pathway is activated by the binding of Wnt ligands to the receptor complex formed by a Frizzled receptor and an LRP5/6 co-receptor. Furthermore, it is well known that sclerostin is an important inhibitor of the pathway that prevents Wnt ligands from binding to LRP/6 and activating the ...

Head impact biomechanics for protecting the active ageing population KU Leuven

Jos Vander Sloten
Biomechanics Section, Research Group Experimental Neurosurgery and Neuroanatomy

In Europe, the incidence of fatal and hospitalized traumatic brain injury (TBI) is 262/100.000/year. Lately, a significant increase in the proportion of elderly patients suffering TBI has been observed. This can be explained by changing demographics, better health status allowing them to remain fully active, but also by the presumed mechanical vulnerability of the ageing brain and surrounding tissues.

While staying active is rightfully ...

The role of innate-like T cells in combined gut-joint disease in spondyloarthritis Ghent University

Dirk Elewaut
Department of Biotechnology, Department of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics

Spondyloarthritis (SpA) covers a group of common inflammatory and chronic musculoskeletal
diseases that affect up to 1% of the Western population. They are characterized by inflammation
and tissue damage of the joints, leading to irreversible damage and loss of motoric function.
Interestingly, we demonstrated that about 50% of SpA patients were found to have microscopic
signs of gut inflammation, without having ...

How T cell autoreactivity develops in early rheumatoid arthritis: the smoking gun hypothesis Ghent University

Dirk Elewaut
Department of Internal Medicine and Pediatrics, Department of Applied Mathematics, Computer Science and Statistics

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is one of the most common autoimmune diseases and is characterized by
uncontrolled inflammation of the synovial tissue, eventually leading to joint destruction. RA is a
complex disease resulting by a combination of genetic and environmental factors. The most
profound genetic association exists within MHC-II genes suggesting that RA pathology is Thelper cell
dependent. One of the strongest ...

Multiple Sclerosis rehabilitation: does combined low and high intensity exercise therapy prevent health-related comorbidities and improve exercise capacity and muscle strength? Hasselt University

Bert OP 'T EIJNDE
Cardio & organ systems, Physiology
Exercise therapy has become an important part of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) treatment. So far, a multitude of higher intensity exercise therapy (HIT) studies have shown substantial improvements in a variety of MS related functional disabilities such as reduced exercise capacity and muscle strength. However, MS also results in an inactivity-related physiological profile and thus impaired glycaemic control, blood lipid profile and body composition. ...

Development and clinical evaluation of an Intelligent Activity-based Client-centred Training system in rehabilitation Hasselt University

Annemie SPOOREN
Rehabilitation Research Center
Client-centred task-oriented training is important in neurorehabilitation. Based on exploratory research, a new client-centred and task-oriented training system has been developed: the intelligent Activity-based Client-centred Training (i-ACT) system . A feasibility study in patients and therapists, reported medium to high scores on motivation, usability, credibility and expectations towards the system. The pilot study showed improvements ...

Modeling of invasive cancer-cell force application mechanisms and setup of cancer-cell transvascular mechanobiology experiments KU Leuven

Hans Van Oosterwyck
Biomechanics Section
Understanding the mechanisms by which cancer cells apply forces to their environment to invade is crucial to classify tumor risk-levels and choice of treatment. Weihs lab have developed an approach to identify invasiveness of cancer cells, i.e. the metastatic risk. Specifically, a subpopulation of metastatic cells will indent a synthetic, impenetrable gel, while benign cells do not. However, the force application mechanisms are unclear and ...