Projects
The role of mucosal integrity and low-grade inflammation in functional dyspepsia. KU Leuven
The brain-gut axis in health and disease: from mucosal integrity to cortical processing. KU Leuven
The role of impaired mucosal integrity in the pathogenesis of postinflammatory gastrointestinal motor dysfunction. KU Leuven
Microbe-mucin isoform crosstalks mediating mucosal barrier function in the gastrointestinal tract versus vagina. University of Antwerp
Cystic fibrosis as a modulable model for mucosal and systemic immunity in airway disease. Ghent University
The pathophysiology of inflammatory airway diseases and their exacerbations is determined by a continuous interplay of local and systemic immunity, and micro-organisms residing in the airways. The cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR) gene encodes for an ion channel involved in the pathogenesis of many chronic airway diseases. In cystic fibrosis (CF), an autosomal recessive trait in CFTR leads to thick and sticky mucus, a ...
Tissue-engineering protocols to accelerate angiogenesis in allogenic trachea transplantation. KU Leuven
Reconstruction of defects involving more than half of the length of the trachea is challenging. Techniques to close these lesions include the use of autologous, allogenic and synthetic tissues. The key aspects of treating long-segment tracheal lesions are not yet fully elucidated. Tissue engineering emerged as a promising field of research to create non-immunogenic scaffolds and aims to construct a functional substitutes for damaged tissues ...
Microbes-4-Immunity: single-cell based sorting and investigation of the functional microbiome in intestinal and extra-intestinal immune homeostasis. Ghent University
The high incidence of chronic inflammatory and auto-immune disorders in a Western lifestyle is associated with the microbiome. It’s however extremely difficult to identify the functional microbiota, modulating immunodevelopment and -homeostasis. This project will generate new insights in microbehost interactions using a unique combination of flowcytometric cellsorting, access to clinical samples and an in vitro and in vivo technology ...