Projects
Host-symbiotic microbial community interaction and adaptation to environmental stress in the water flea Daphnia KU Leuven
Every organism is host to a diverse and dynamic symbiotic microbial community (SMC). The wide array of genotypes presented by SMCs and their ability to adapt rapidly to novel conditions combined with host control over the microbiota could help to maximize host fitness. Further, the nature and outcome of these symbiotic interactions are often context-dependent. Using exposure to toxic substances of natural and anthropogenic origin as key ...
Myrmecophile metacommunities: integrating dispersal and food web interactions into spatial food web networks Ghent University
The characteristics and dynamics of ecological communities can be analytically explored by using network analysis. The implications of space on the ecological network functioning has only recently been fully considered and virtually no studies have exami
Characterisation of genes involved in arenavirus - host interaction University of Antwerp
Multilevel differentiation and evolution of parasite populations in space and time Hasselt University
Puumala hantavirus variation in heterogeneous environments in western Europe : ecological drivers and epidemiological outcomes University of Antwerp
Siluriformes of the Albertian Rift and their monogeneans: systematics, phylogeny and biogeography. Hasselt University
Calibrating the recent evolution of protozoan pathogens using viral evolutionary time-scales KU Leuven
Exploring natural genetic variation has been instrumental to understand the processes that shape organismal diversity on Earth. Phylogenetics, the study of the evolutionary history and relationships among (groups of) individuals, is one of the most influential techniques to reconstruct the tree of life. This technique is especially powerful when external information, such as fossil data, can be included to time evolutionary events. ...
Thermal adaptation and its interplay with biotoc interactions across a latitude gradient. KU Leuven
Evolutionary epidemiology of schistosomiasis in the Senegal River Basin. Linking parasite genetics with human infection and disease KU Leuven
Schistosomiasis is a major poverty-related disease, infecting more than 200 million people in developing countries. More than 90% of them live in Sub-Saharan Africa. It is caused by infection with Schistosoma flatworms that reside in the vascular system of the definitive host. Freshwater snails are the intermediate hosts of schistosomes and essential for the completion of their life cycle. Praziquantel is currently the only ...