Projects
Resilience and vulnerability in the cellular phase of Alzheimer’s disease. KU Leuven
This project proposes an integrative approach to assess how the different pathological mechanisms of AD are linked to each other and how genetic risk of AD underlays resilience or vulnerability. While the classical neuron-centric view on AD pathogenesis sees amyloid peptides as triggers of synaptic dysfunction and Tau pathology as the executor of neurodegeneration, it is now clear that other cell types also react to amyloid plaques and that ...
Fine tuning and engaging the immune system to defeat Alzheimer’s disease. Ghent University
Although well-studied, there are still many questions about the origin of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), making the development of a disease-modifying treatment challenging. Looking at AD from a different angle may boost the design of a more rational approach. Emerging evidence now supports the concept that the immune system plays a key role in AD pathogenesis and leads to the idea that specific parts of the immune system must be fine tuned and ...
Worldwide Consortium of Retinal Imaging for Alzheimer's Disease KU Leuven
The innovative goal of the BRAINSTORM project is to guide clinical management of Alzheimer's disease (AD) by detecting the disease in the pre-symptomatic phase in a non-invasive, rapid and cost-effective manner. The consortium consists of leading clinicians and scientists with diverse expertise, all with the aim of evaluating multimodal, retinal biomarkers in AD. They achieve this by evaluating a) retinal, hyperspectral, photographic, OCT and ...
From population-based study to functional biology: combinatorial effect APOE and low-risk genetic risk factors of Alzheimer's Disease in the microglia response to amyloid pathology. University of Antwerp
Prediction of conversion to Alzheimer's disease in Down syndrome: a behavioural and neurochemical approach. University of Antwerp
Losing memory, losing meaning? Towards a deeper understanding of meaning in life in Alzheimer’s disease patients KU Leuven
Within psychological science, the concept of meaning in life is understood as the subjective experience that one’s life makes sense, has a purpose, and is worth living. Burgeoning empirical evidence shows the benefits of experiencing meaning in life for physical and mental health across different populations, including older adults. However, current views of meaning in life assume that complex cognitive abilities are needed to ...
Necroptosis pathway activation and its role in neuronal cell loss in Alzheimer's disease KU Leuven
Accumulation of misfolded, aggregated proteins and the associated neuronal cell loss are considered the most fundamental hallmarks of neurodegenerative diseases, including Alzheimer's disease (AD). Despite the prevalent neuronal cell death in AD, the modality of cell death and molecular events leading to such neuronal cell death mechanisms are seldom investigated. Lack of preclinical models that sufficiently recapitulate AD-relevant neuronal ...
Unbiased in vivo CRISPR/CAS9 kinome-wide screen to identify disease-modifying targets in Alzheimer’s disease KU Leuven
The relationship between Amyloid β (Aβ peptide, Tau, and neuronal cell loss is a central problem in the study of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, cell culture or animal models do not reproduce well the cell death phenotype that is crucial to analyze this relation. As it remains unclear to what extent rodent or other species can fully reproduce the AD phenotype, such study is performed ideally in human cells. In the current project, we take ...
Tau oligomers as target for novel Alzheimer’s disease diagnostics and therapeutics KU Leuven
With the higher life expectancy, the incidence of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), rises rapidly. In 2010, an estimated 35.6 million people worldwide were suffering from dementia, with AD representing 50 to 80% of the cases. It is predicted that the overall number of patients with dementia will double every twenty years in the absence of disease-modifying therapies. The existing drugs for AD offer poor therapeutic ...