Projects
Mitochondria take centre stage: pathways to reduced oocyte quality and opportunities for curative strategies under maternal metabolic stress conditions. University of Antwerp
Polyamine and iron interplay at the interface between mitochondria and lysosomes with its putative implications for Parkinson’s disease. KU Leuven
Parkinson's disease (PD) is a progressive neurodegenerative disease whose main symptoms are the consequence of the loss of dopaminergic neurons in the substantia nigra. Its pathological hallmarks include protein aggregation and lysosomal and mitochondrial dysfunction. In addition, excess iron accumulation in dopaminergic neurons and defects in the metabolism of polyamines have been implicated in the pathology of PD. Multiple studies suggest ...
Timed dendrite-axon routing of mitochondria enables successful repair in the injured central nervous system KU Leuven
Neural insults and neurodegenerative diseases typically result in permanent functional deficits and represent a growing social and economic problem in our aging society. As the central nervous system of adult mammals only has a limited regenerative capacity, identifying cellular and molecular mechanisms that enable neuronal regeneration forms a critical step towards designing future pro-regenerative therapies. Within this project we aim to ...
Molecular mechanisms of Parkin translocation to mitochondria KU Leuven
Parkinson’s disease (PD) is a devastating, currently incurable brain disorder. In PD, specific nerve cells gradually die, causing tremor, slowness of movement, falls, dementia and many other problems. Why these nerve cells die, is not well understood. However, in rare familial cases PD is caused by genetic mutations that disrupt the function of the protein Parkin. Recently, it was discovered that Parkin is crucial to maintain a healthy pool ...