Projects
BOF-ZAP professorship in development biology of plants Ghent University
Biology driven Complexity Reduction of Individual based Models KU Leuven
Evolutionary paths to adaptive divergence: The role of ancient and ongoing hybridisation in rapid speciation of sailfin silverside fishes. University of Antwerp
Evolutionary paths to adaptive divergence: The role of ancient and ongoing hybridisation in rapid speciation of sailfin silverside fishes. University of Antwerp
Next generation diagnostics and susceptibility testing in biofilm-related prosthetic joint infections based on a better understanding of biofilm biology – an innovative translational approach KU Leuven
Foodborne illnesses remain a significant global public health problem with large economic consequences, despite the strict regulations regarding food safety. Salmonella represents the most common cause of bacterial foodborne outbreaks. We hypothesize that the publicly available exopolymeric substances (EPS) of the biofilm matrix made by this pathogen play an important role in gut colonization and invasion. EPS are therefore considered as ...
Pollination biology and mating patterns of wild Robusta coffee populations in the Congo Basin KU Leuven
Tropical rainforests cover only 7% of the earth’s surface, but they are by far the richest biomes in terms of vascular plant diversity. To ensure the resilience and long-term stability of tropical rainforests, fostering the regeneration of the occurring woody plant species is critical. Yet, crucial aspects of gene flow, including pollination and seed dispersal, have become strongly jeopardized through ongoing large-scale anthropogenic ...
The biology of aggregation gatekeeper residues KU Leuven
Protein aggregation is a threat to protein function and cell viability. Most aggregation events are mediated by intermolecular interactions between short stretches of hydrophobic amino acids known as Aggregation Prone Regions (APRs)1. Protein aggregation is evolutionary tuned to physiological protein abundance by minimizing the number and length of APRs per protein. However, as hydrophobic sequence fragments are required for protein structure ...
Ecology and molecular biology of bacterial adaptation to pesticides KU Leuven
Pesticides are indispensable for ensuring a stable food supply chain and their world-wide use is increasing. However, they are a major environmental concern due to their recalcitrant nature and toxicity towards non-target organisms. Despite increasingly stringent regulations, pesticides continue to exceed mandated threshold levels in ground and surface waters. To address this persistence issue, a better understanding of the environmental fate ...
The Modern versus Extended Evolutionary Synthesis: an intra-genomic gene's eye view for the evolution-theoretic underpinning of molecular and developmental epigenetics Ghent University
Studying the phenotypic evolution of organisms in terms of populations of genes and genotypes, the Modern Synthesis (MS) conceptualizes biological evolution in terms of 'inter-organismal' interactions among genes sitting in the different individual organisms that constitute a population.
It 'black-boxes' the complex 'intra-organismic' molecular and developmental epigenetics that mediates between genotypes and phenotypes. To conceptually ...