Projects
High resolution profiling of oral biofilms: from toolbox development to novel treatment analysis for periodontitis KU Leuven
Periodontitis is a multifactorial chronic inflammatory disease in the oral cavity associated with the accumulation of microorganisms in a biofilm. Studying these complex communities under controlled conditions require in vitro biofilm model systems that mimic the natural environment as close as possible. The aim of this research project is the establishment of a multispecies periodontal model that is representative for periodontitis, mimics ...
Tissue engineering for conjunctival reconstruction: Introducing selfassembled collagen-like-peptide scaffolds for the expansion of human conjunctival-derived cells in a xeno-free and serum-free environment. University of Antwerp
Heterotypic amyloid interactions as modulators of selective cellular vulnerability KU Leuven
It is currently not known what determines the selective neuronal
vulnerability of amyloids in neurodegenerative pathologies: we do
not understand how amyloids interact with other cellular components,
whether these interactions are specific, and how these interactions
result in cell-specific toxic phenotypes.
Our lab has played a crucial role in elucidating how aggregationprone
regions drive the self-assembly of ...
Next generation membrane platform for ultra-fast purification in bioprocessing KU Leuven
The purification of biopharmaceuticals is an essential step in the
biomedical applications such as therapeutics, immunodiagnostics
and vaccine development. The large market demand pushes above
10-fold increase in upstream production, shifting the manufacturing
bottleneck to downstream processing. Resin columns are currently
dominant but face major hurdles in scale-up due to high material
cost, ultra-high pressure ...
Intraperitoneal nebulization of thermosensitive hydrogels for the controlled release of chemotherapeutics and biopharmaceuticals to treat peritoneal carcinomatosis Ghent University
Yearly, about 150000 people develop peritoneal carcinomatosis (PC) in Europe alone. PC is characterized by the spread of numerous small tumor nodules in the peritoneal cavity. After initial surgery, where as many tumor nodules are removed as possible, the patients receive the intraperitoneal injection of chemotherapeutics such as cisplatin. The prognosis of this patients is however poor, with a median survival of 8 to 12 months. Currently, ...
Structural and functional biology of bacterial S-layers Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Insight into the interactions between polyoxometalates and proteins via combined x-ray diffraction and solution state studies KU Leuven
Research in the field of proteomics often relies on hydrolysis of proteins into smaller, more manageable fragments. This process requires the usage of a catalyst since the peptide bond has an estimated half-life of 600 years. While proteases are very efficient in hydrolyzing the peptide backbone, they often undergo self-hydrolysis and generate fragments that are too small to match to the protein they were generated from. Most of chemical ...
CHIral symmetry breaking from Surface to Bulk: a multidisciplinary approach of the crystallization of achiral and chiral molecules (CHISUB). University of Antwerp
Nucleation, cross-reactivity and structure of bacterial functional amyloids Vrije Universiteit Brussel
fibrils is not restricted to off-pathway protein misfolding events seen
in pathological amyloidosis but is also found as the native
conformation of a wide range of pro- and eukaryotic proteins referred
to as functional amyloids (FA). A significant fraction of the FAs
produced by prokaryotes are related to the persistence and virulence
...