Projects

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Microbial degradation of chlorinated ethenes in hyporheic zones: processes and development of mitigation strategies KU Leuven

Dirk Springael
Division of Soil and Water Management
Chlorinated aliphatic compounds (CAHs) like tetrachloroethene (PCE), trichloroethene (TCE) and their daughter products cis</>-dichloroethene (cDCE) and vinyl chloride (VC) are major groundwater contaminants threatening water quality and human health. At many industrial sites, CAH contaminated groundwater plumes discharge into surface water bodies like rivers and lakes. </>Research and technology development aiming at mitigationof ...

Single-cell sorting and DNA profiling for complex forensic casework KU Leuven

Bram Bekaert
Forensic Biomedical Sciences

Crime scene and rape kit samples often contain cells from multiple donors leading to complex DNA mixtures. Various methods have been developed in all stages of the process including differential extraction to separate epithelial from sperm cells and the deconvolution of the mixtures using probabilistic genotyping. Despite all efforts, partial profiles and complex mixtures still all too often compromise the resolution of cases leaving victims ...

Movement and fate of pesticides in wetland buffer zones: reactive transport and the influence of seasonal environmental changes. KU Leuven

Dirk Springael
Division of Soil and Water Management

Riparian wetlands are proposed to mitigate diffuse pollution of surface water by pesticides in agricultural landscapes. Biodegradation might play an important role in mitigation in wetlands, especially in case of mobile pesticides, but information on this is scarce. The overall goal of this thesis was to acquire a better understanding of the process of biodegradation of pesticides in riparian wetlands. Emphasis was put on the dynamics of the ...

Molecular identification of the dominant microbiota and their spoilage potential in shrimp and ray Research Institute for Agriculture, Fisheries and Food

Marc Heyndrickx, Geertrui Vlaemynck
Food Safety, Technology and Food Science
Main research question/goal
What kind of microorganisms and produced metabolites are responsible for fish spoilage? How can we identify and qualify the presence of these microorganisms? Based on the microbial analysis of specific fish species we should be able to predict the remaining shelf life better. Fresh and lightly preserved fish and fishery products/shellfish spoil relatively fast, resulting in the typical unpleasant ...

Aptamer based strategies for ultrasensitive protein detection KU Leuven

Jeroen Lammertyn
Department of Chemistry, Division of Mechatronics, Biostatistics and Sensors (MeBioS), Department of Materials Engineering
In recent years, the concept of personalized medicine is gaining increased interest. It is envisioned that it soon might be possible to accurately assess medical risk -even before the onset of disease- and to monitor, diagnose and treat patients more effectively based on their individual genomes. Currently however, the vastly increased availability of genetic information is of only limited value to the individual, as the number of known genetic ...

Par excellence: italiano popolare in the 21st century KU Leuven

Massimo Cerruti, Stefania Marzo
Quantitative Lexicology and Variational Linguistics (QLVL), Leuven

Par excellence: italiano popolare in the 21st century 1. Introduction: research questions and objectives This project deals with two sociolinguistic issues that have particularly challenged researchers in recent years. On a broader and theoretical sociolinguistic level, this project contributes to the current debate that centers around the notion of ‘language variety”. On a descriptive and empirical level, it wants to contribute to a strongly ...

Components For Lab On Chip Systems KU Leuven

Liesbet Lagae
Soft Matter and Biophysics

Point of care microsystems also known as lab-on-chips (LOC) are envisaged to revolutionize healthcare in near future. The microfluidics community, for the last 25 to 30 years, has been prolific in developing a myriad of reliable microfluidic devices, each performing a specific task required for the working of a LOC system. Unfortunately, these high performing devices, have their unique fabrication flow process which makes it impossible to ...

Understanding therapeutic efficacy of calorie restriction in Alzheimer's disease: dynamic rsfMRI and vascular reactivity as biomarkers in an AD rat model University of Antwerp

Marleen Verhoye
Bio-Imaging lab
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder characterized by progressive decline in cognitive function associated with Aβ -peptide plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. Because aging is the major risk factor for AD, and dietary energy restriction can retard aging processes in the brain, researchers have been testing the hypothesis that caloric restriction (CR) regimens can protect against cognitive decline. The exact mechanisms ...

Lab-on-a-chip technology for protein detection in bio-reactors. KU Leuven

Jeroen Lammertyn
Division of Mechatronics, Biostatistics and Sensors (MeBioS)
Lab-on-a-chips and micro total analysis systems have been around for more than three decades. They find applications in medical, environmental and food diagnostics and appear in many different configurations and complexities. They all have in common that fluids are transported in small volumes through micrometer sized structures. A promising and growing subcategory of these microfluidic systems are the multiphase, droplet or segmented flow ...

Low-k materials engineering for 10 nm technology node and beyond KU Leuven

Stefan De Gendt
Sustainable Chemistry for Metals and Molecules, Membrane Separations, Adsorption, Catalysis, and Spectroscopy for Sustainable Solutions (cMACS)

A simple and yet indispensable part of every microelectronics chip is a multi-level wiring (interconnect) system built on top of the semiconductor device layer. This system is responsible for signal transmission between functional nodes of an integrated circuit. While in the early days of microelectronics the IC performance was largely defined by the operational speed of the devices built within the semiconductor surface, the decades of ...