Projects
Metabolic syndrome in bipolar disorder: relationships with physical activity, physical fitness and functional exercise capacity. KU Leuven
Individuals with mood disorders have a high risk for cardiovascular diseases. The lack of physical activity and a limited physical fitness are known to be important risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. Individuals with mood disorders should therefore especially be motivated to adopt an active lifestyle. In order to offer clear guidelines, there is first need for reliable assessment. In this research project we want to evaluate the ...
Peroxisomes and vision: what is the role of peroxisomal oxidation in the retina? KU Leuven
The crucial function of peroxisomes for vision is illustrated by the fact that prominent ophthalmological pathology, including retinopathy, occurs in nearly all peroxisomal diseases. Peroxisomes are subcellular organelles that play an essential role in oxygen and lipid metabolism, but their precise contribution to the maintenance of tissue homeostasis is still largely obscure. According to our preliminary data, the retina of mice with ...
Households in mental health care: an experimental study on the role of the household in the care for people with a severe mental illness in South Africa. University of Antwerp
Neurophysiological mechanisms of hypoperfusion in stroke KU Leuven
Perception, action and cognition are achieved through complex functional interactions between highly interconnected regions in the brain. Blood supply plays a key role in supporting the reorganization of brain functional architecture. Thus, an abnormal blood supply in a brain area can disrupt this coordinated activity, and yields behavioural deficits, which can strongly affect people’s quality of life.
In this project, I will shed light ...
Combined NMR and ab initio analysis of new fluorinated prolines for their application as structural modulators and NMR probes in disordered proline-rich peptide sequences Ghent University
Disordered proline-rich proteins play an important role in biology, as they are often involved in protein-protein interactions that mediate cell signalling or gene regulation. Using NMR spectroscopy to investigate them is obstructed by the lack of an amide proton in Pro residues and the low resolution between resonances of different residues. This project proposes introducing various fluorinated prolines (FPro) in proline-rich or oligoproline ...
Linking functional microarchitecture of the myocardial infarction borderzone to arrhythmogenesis KU Leuven
The mortality associated with a heart attack has become quite low due to better treatment during this acute event. However, life-threatening rhythm disorders often develop in the following months and years for which treatment remains limited. Providing novel insights in the underlying mechanisms is the major aim of the proposed research. The proposal builds on the power of novel research tools to investigate why the border zone around the ...
Neural dynamics of unresponsive states KU Leuven
Human consciousness fluctuates across a continuum of brain states: from physiological states of conscious wakefulness and sleep, to altered states in general anesthesia and disorders of consciousness (DOC). The traditional way of inferring consciousness based on behavioral responsiveness can fail to reflect the actual brain state. Clinical unresponsiveness does therefore not rule out unconsciousness and additional brain-based tools are needed ...