Projects

In animals, glycoproteins are known to be important for a multitude of biological processes such as cell signaling, immunological recognition and the unique process of insect metamorphosis. However, our knowledge of insect glycoproteins is limited and is restricted to the model insect Drosophila melanogaster. In this project, we will study the N-glycosylation of proteins in the hemimetabolous sap-sucking brown planthopper Nilaparvata lugens. ...

N-glycosylation is altered during aging and specific glyco-genes are responsible for this process. We will analyze the regulation of involved glyco-genes by in silico analysis and functional promoter studies. Next, we will study the influence of alterations of the N-glycosylation pattern on the aging process itself as well as on aging-related signaling pathways. This will be done both in vitro and in vivo.

Disease driven amphibian declines are frequently compared to the extinction of dinosaurs and have become an icon of the global biodiversity crisis. The deadly skin disease chytridiomycosis is causing the greatest recorded loss of biodiversity attributable to a disease. The recently introduced chytrid fungus Batrachochytrium salamandrivorans (Bsal) is expanding its range in Europe, remains unmitigated and thus poses an imminent threat to ...

Congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDG) are severe multisystemic
inborn errors of metabolism. For most of these orphan diseases,
there is only supportive therapy, therefor constituting an unmet
medical need. In PMM2-CDG, the most frequent CDG, despite its
genetic characterization and clarification of enzymatic dysfunction,
there is insufficient insight in the pathophysiology to adequately
develop ...

Posttranslational modifications such as limited proteolytic truncation, nitration and citrullination have been shown to affect the biological activity of chemokines. CCL2 is a major attractant and activator of monocytes and one of the only chemokines for which natural glycosylation has been reported. Recently, also chemokine receptors that belong to the G protein-coupled receptor family were shown to be affected by glycosylation. However, ...

Congenital disorders of glycosylation (CDG) are severe multisystemic inborn errors of metabolism. For most of these orphan diseases, there is only supportive therapy, therefor constituting an unmet medical need. In PMM2-CDG, the most frequent CDG, despite its genetic characterization and clarification of enzymatic dysfunction, there is insufficient insight in the pathophysiology to adequately develop therapies. In current project we will ...

Glycosylation is a chemical modification of proteins in our cells. It affects their stability and function. Thousands of proteins are ‘glyco-proteins’. As a result, genetic defects in glycosylation pathways lead to mostly severe diseases, called ‘Congenital Disorders of Glycosylation’ (CDG). With more than 100 different types, CDG has become an impressive group of metabolic diseases. On the one hand, we have patients with clear glycosylation ...

Congenital Disorders of Glycosylation (CDG) are a rapidly growing and heterogeneous group of rare metabolic diseases caused by inborn defects in glycosylation. Thanks to the use of Whole Exome Sequencing (WES), SLC10A7 has been identified as a candidate gene in CDG patients with a specific clinical phenotype of skeletal dysplasia. The function of SLC10A7 is absolutely not deciphered yet. This PhD project proposes to apply our combined ...