Projects
In the mind of the scribe: an integrated sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic approach to orthographic variation and change in the Greek language of the papyri Ghent University
This project proposes to combine for the first time historical (socio)linguistics with the insights from modern psycholinguistic research to study linguistic variation in post-Classical Greek. For this purpose the study will use the corpus of Greek documentary papyri, an important source for our knowledge of the history of Greek after the Classical period (ca. 300 BCE – 800 CE). The project builds on existing infrastructure developed by the ...
A genomic look into the evolution and biogeography of the ichthyofauna of the Albertine rift KU Leuven
The landscape we observe today is the result of ancient changes in geology and past fluctuations in climate. Just as these forces shaped landscapes, they molded the genomes of the organisms that inhabit them. Hence, the genomic record offers a glimpse into the past, equally rich as that of the geological and fossil record. However, just as the forces of time eroded away the geological record, extinctions did so for the genomic record. Hence, ...
Retracing the steps of enzyme evolution: an exploration of ancestral sequence space Ghent University
Enzymes can be used to catalyse reactions with splendid control over specificity and selectivity. However, their high degree of specialisation sometimes narrows down their application potential or complicates their engineering towards different functions. There are indications that ancestral enzymes used to be more promiscuous and more mutationally flexible, and therefore, they may hold great biotechnological appeal. Sadly, not much is ...
The interplay between language contact and language change in a fragmentary linguistic area: the Italic peninsula in the first millennium B.C.E. KU Leuven
This research project focuses on the languages spoken in the Italic peninsula in the first millennium B.C.E. (in particular, Latin, Etruscan, Oscan and Umbrian) and the insights they can provide into the process of language change. Linguists have long recognised that the spread of language innovations from one language variety to another is an integral part of all language change, but the conditions which determine whether or not an ...
Elucidating the role of macrophages in liver regeneration and tissue unit formation Ghent University
The liver has the unique ability to rapidly regenerate and restore function following tissue damage. This has been recognized as far back as the ancient Greeks, who described it in the myth of Prometheus. However, the precise mechanisms controlling regeneration have not yet been fully identified. Macrophages (Macs) have been proposed to play a role in regeneration, however, it has not been clear if these are Kupffer cells (KCs), tissue ...
The role of GPCRs in metabolism and physiology of the pea aphid, Acyrthosiphon pisum. KU Leuven
Insects comprise 80% of the world’s animal species representing the largest and most diverse life form on the planet. Over evolutionary time, insects occupied and adapted to widely divergent habitats, resulting in a rich variation of body plans with different shapes, sizes, and specialized feeding mechanisms. They thus represent a unique opportunity to gain insight in the mechanisms that control feeding and metabolism and how they change ...
The role of DNA methylation in locust swarming behaviour Ghent University
All organisms can adjust their form and physiology to suit changes in their environment.
Economically devastating locust swarms result from an extreme type of such “phenotypic plasticity”.
Depending on population density, the locust genome can manifest as one of two very different
phenotypic outcomes: a lone-living “solitarious phase” or a swarming “gregarious phase”.
Gregarious behaviour can arise within hours of ...
Charting the enterotype in human disease and health KU Leuven
Animals and bacteria have been working together for about as long as they have co-existed, long before the advent of mankind. The bodies of our ancient ancestors offered protected, nutrientrich habitats for bacteria. In return, animals could take an evolutionary short-cut to developing new capabilities by ‘borrowing’ bacterial genes. In humans, bacterial genes can outnumber our own by about 100 to 1 and even though many merely help the ...
Cultivating Scripture in a Hellenistic World: Jewish Scholarship of the Pentateuch in Hellenistic-Roman Palestine and Alexandrian Homer Scholarship. KU Leuven
This project investigates the development of Jewish scholarship of the Pentateuch in Hellenistic-Roman Palestine in the wake of Alexandrian scholarship of the Iliad and the Odyssey. This project focuses on the attitude of Alexandrian scholars of the homeric epics and Jewish scholars of the Pentateuch towards the authorship, narrative consistency, and textual fluidity of their base texts. The first step in this research will be to demonstrate ...