Projects
Systemic sclerosis and occupational silica or solvent exposure: investigating epidemiology, gene-environment interactions and objective markers of exposure to improve occupational epidemiology, risk assessment and prevention. KU Leuven
Systemic sclerosis is a rare autoimmune disease that can develop in genetically predisposed individuals upon exposure to – at present largely unknown- environmental triggers. The best available evidence supports a link between systemic sclerosis and job exposure to silica or solvents. Due to the rarity of the disease many questions remain open: what is the critical threshold of exposure above which disease will develop? Is intensity of ...
Systemic sclerosis and occupational silica or solvent exposure: investigating epidemiology, gene-environment interactions and objective markers of exposure to improve occupational epidemiology, risk assessment and prevention KU Leuven
ystemic sclerosis can develop in genetically predisposed individuals upon exposure to environmental triggers. We will investigate the association between occupational exposure to silica or solvents and systemic sclerosis. We will determine genetic backgrounds to evaluate the relation between exposure, genetics and disease characteristics. We will evaluate objective markers of exposure. This would allow for true preventive strategies and lead ...
L’épidémiologie et la lutte contre la schistosomiase au Burundi dans un contexte d’élimination Institute of Tropical Medicine
Environment-epigenome interactions in the male germ line: an interdisciplinary approach to develop a new biomarker in chemical risk assessment using large human data sets, epidemiologic studies, and machine learning methods. KU Leuven
According to multiple animal studies the sperm epigenome is sensitive to various factors, including ageing, lifestyle-related factors and environmental pollutants. If these non-genetic alterations in germ cells can be inherited from parent-to-child in humans and increase the risk for offspring diseases, it is important to improve our understanding of environment-epigenome interactions. In a pilot study, our research team evaluated a few ...
Epidemiologic study of risk factors for Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD) Ghent University
The aim of this coordinated, multidisciplinary epidemiologic research is to identify novel COPD susceptibility genes and to elucidate the role of the systemic inflammation in the pathogenesis of COPD. Within a large prospective population-based cohort, the role of systemic inflammation will be investigated in the pathogenesis of COPD as well as in the extrathoracic consequences / comorbidities of COPD.
AspICU - An international, multicentre epidemiologic study on Aspergillus species in intensive care unit patients with the objective to identify specific risk factors and the validation of a diagnostic algorithm to discriminate Aspergillus colonization Ghent University
Invasive pulmonary aspergillosis is a fungal disease with high mortality. Because of difficulties in diagnosis the true incidence of t his disease is unknown. There are no validated diagnostic criteria for intensive care patients. Our reserach group retrospectively developed a diagnostic algorithm with high sensitivity and specificity. The objective is to prospectively validate this diagnostic algorithm.