Projects
Pathogen-driven gastrointestinal microbiota in passerines: anthropogenic environments as a model. Ghent University
Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium could be the cause of fatal septicaemia in wild birds. The general hypothesis of this project is that birds living in urban, suburban and rural regions may locally adapt to increased pathogen pressure through GI microbial composition alteration which, in turn, reduces the pathogen’s virulence. This hypothesis will be investigated in field populations of house sparrows along urbanization gradients.
Impact of the dynamic nature of the human gastrointestinal tract on drug and formulation behavior. KU Leuven
Authorized drugs intended for oral administration often suffer from suboptimal or variable performance in clinical practice. In addition, many promising drug candidates fail during costly and time-consuming clinical trials. An important cause of these problems is a poor prediction of intestinal drug absorption. While the pharmaceutical industry expresses an urgent need for more predictive simulation tools, their development requires a ...
Survival of foodborne pathogens in the human upper gastrointestinal tract: Design and analysis of an in vitro model system incorporating gut microbiota and absorption phenomena KU Leuven
Over the past few decades, microbial food safety has received a lot of attention. Yet foodborne infections remain a major burden, worldwide. The primary infection route of foodborne pathogens is through the consumption of contaminated food. Once ingested, incoming pathogens must succumb several antimicrobial barriers along the gastrointestinal tract before reaching an optimal site for attachment and colonization. These gastrointestinal ...
Therapeutic modulation of the neuroimmune crosstalk at the leaky gastrointestinal border during sepsis; a translational study. University of Antwerp
Relevance of an altered epithelial function in gastrointestinal and non-gastrointestinal disorders KU Leuven
The intestinal barrier separates the internal environment from the lumen of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. To keep the normal epithelial homeostasis (absorption of nutrients and water, water secretion…) a tight epithelial regulation is essential. Luminal components cross the intestinal barrier through the cells (transcellular pathway), or between the cells (paracellular pathway). During this project, we will explore the role of altered ...
Reciprocal innervation of the gastrointestinal ileo-caeco-colonic triad; implications for storage and release of symbiotic microbial content KU Leuven
Apart from supplying the host with nutrients and expelling undigestible remnants and noxious elements that we ingest, the gastrointestinal tract also harbors a large community of bacteria, which operate in symbiosis with its host to aid digestion and provide essential factors. The importance of the microbiome has been a matter of increased interest, and shifts in its composition have been linked to intestinal malfunction and disease. It is ...
Pediatric biopharmaceutics: translating gastrointestinal characteristics into improved predictive absorption tools. KU Leuven
Until recently, pharmaceutical companies have never been encouraged to perform clinical studies in the pediatric population; as a result, off-label use of drugs in children is still common. Regulatory authorities have recognized this problem and have introduced incentives and requirements for the pharmaceutical industry to include pediatric studies in their development programs. An efficient drug development process is guided by reliable ...
Stem cell therapy for the treatment of gastrointestinal motility disorders: targeting defects in neuronal wiring KU Leuven
Investigation on the conversion profile of masked deoxynivalenol and zaralenone in the porcine and human gastrointestinal tract Ghent University
The research proposal aims to clarify the following research questions.
1. To what extent are zearalenone, a-zearalenol or b-zearalenol released from zearalenone-14-glucoside, zearalenone-14-sulfate, a-zearalenol-14-glucoside and b-zearalenol-14-glucoside, frequently occurring masked derivatives in cerealbased food and feed during digestion?
2. To what extent is deoxynivalenol released from deoxynivalenol-3-glucoside, a frequently ...