Projects
ELIXIR Infrastructure for Data and Services to strengthen Life-Sciences Research in Flanders. University of Antwerp
Development of novel methods to predict the drug resistance phenotype of Mycobacterium tuberculosis variants. University of Antwerp
Analysis of Calcium signaling in autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease. KU Leuven
Mutations in the genes encoding the polycystin-1 and -2 proteins lead to autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), the most common inherited renal disease. The molecular mechanisms underlying the formation of renal cysts are poorly characterized, although better knowledge of these mechanisms could have important therapeutic consequences. In this project, we aim to identify how polycystin mutations affects cellular signaling ...
PhD in the (epi-)genetic regulation and molecular control of meiotic recombination in plants KU Leuven
Meiosis is a specialized eukaryotic cell division, restoring ploidy levels during fertilization by halving the chromosome number. A key step of meiosis is meiotic recombination and crossovers (CO) formation, which results in reciprocal exchange of parental chromosomes. This gene reshuffling ensures the creation of chromosomes carrying novel combinations, making it a key process of interest for crop breeding programs that seek to bring a ...
Nonlinear data fusion for arbitrary entity-relation graphs with application to genome interpretation for personalized medicine KU Leuven
In this project, we will develop a scalable data fusion algorithm for nonlinear inference over arbitrary Entity-Relation graphs, which are a simple way to describe complex problem domains by specifying how entities (classes of objects) interact. Our data fusion approach is general and could be applied to many problems, but we will focus on the groundbreaking challenge of genome interpretation, whose solution is at the core of personalized ...
Breaking the silence after the storm: the amphibian response to an emerging infectious disease Ghent University
Counteracting the loss of biodiversity presents one of the defining challenges of our time.
Amphibian declines have become iconic of global extinctions, and two lethal pathogenic chytrid
fungi - Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis (Bd) and B. salamandrivorans (Bsal) - are implicated among
the main factors driving their demise. The former caused extensive extirpations in frogs, but the
latter emerged recently and is ...
Untangling the drivers of parasite diversity along gradients of natural and anthropogenic variables in a tropical crater-lake system (Kasenda, Uganda). Ghent University
Biodiversity loss caused by human activities threatens the capacity of ecosystems worldwide to
provide essential ecological services. Hence, a growing effort is directed at understanding the
consequences of anthropogenic disturbances for biodiversity. Parasitic organisms have so far been
widely overlooked in this effort, even though parasitism is the most common feeding strategy on
Earth. One group of parasites with ...
Development of a functional assay to determine the pathogenicity of genetic variants with unknown significance identified in patients with cardiac arrhythmia. University of Antwerp
Insights into the HCV epidemic in Belgium KU Leuven
Belgium is one of the European countries that lacks a registry for HCV infection that is imperative to inform prevention and control interventions. It is unknown how many new HCV infections occur in HIV-positive and –negative IVDU, MSM and other risk groups in Belgium or how many are imported by migrants and travellers. Although HCV cure could be a realistic goal for most patients eligible for DAA treatment, it is still uncertain whether the ...