Projects
The study of HIV-1 uncoating by super-resolution imaging of fluorescently labeled capsid. KU Leuven
Single-virus fluorescence experiments provide a powerful tool to study the HIV-1 replication cycle, which is characterised by fast and transient events, essential virus-host interactions and an overall heterogeneous nature. Specific labelling of a viral protein of interest without inhibiting viral infectivity allows to monitor individual steps of the replication cycle in space and time. In this thesis, we aimed to investigate the fate of both ...
Development of potent and broad-spectrum inhibitors of rhinoviruses for the treatment/prophylaxis of rhinovirus infections of patients with asthma and COPD. KU Leuven
Structure-guided design of BK/JC virus capsid targeting antivirals KU Leuven
BK and JC viruses are closely related members of the polyomavirus family that latently infect 70-90% of humans and cause fatal clinical complications in immunocompromised patients (kidney failure and brain demyelination). There are no effective drugs to treat these infections. The lack of conventional, enzymatic antiviral targets such as proteases or integrases makes any development challeging. The small genome of polyomaviruses encodes two ...
Development of new antimicrobials: Rational design of polyomavirus and mycobacterial inhibitors KU Leuven
Persistent, untreatable infections pose a substantial financial and medical burden on society. Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb) and BK polyomavirus (BKV) are two endemic species that have persisted for more then a century and over 60 years, respectively. Both infections present ongoing challenges to the public health. Within this thesis, novel lead compounds targeting both infections were discovered. In the first part, the thesis focussed on ...
High-resolution cryo-EM structures of the human and yeast Sin3 histone deacetylase complexes KU Leuven
Histone deacetylase (HDAC) complexes are the main transcriptional repression machineries in eukaryotes. Disruption of their functions can lead to various diseases such as cancers, inflammatory diseases, and neurological disorders. HDAC complexes are composed of multiple subunits that assemble around HDAC enzymes, which have been the most exploited targets for developing small molecule therapeutics.
To expand the diversity of ...