Projects
Pathophysiology of epileptic encephalopathies: insights from genetics in patients and in vivo modelling in zebrafish and fruit flies. KU Leuven
We aim to perform genomic analyses to unravel the genetics of epileptic encephalopathies (EE) and to subsequently functionally investigate novel proteins/pathways implicated in the development of these severe disorders. Using whole exome sequencing in sib pairs affected with EE we envisage identifying multiple interesting variants of unknown significance in a broad set of genes. In a preliminary WES study we have already identified one such ...
Non-invasive optical measurement and physical modelling of blood pulse wave velocity for early detection of cardiovascular diseases. University of Antwerp
Influence of chronic oligemia on neurovascular defects and their relation to the onset and development of neurodegeneration: in vivo evaluation of neurovascular response capacity and metabolism in an Alzheimer mouse model. KU Leuven
Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) is the most common cause of dementia, and the most common neurodegenerative disease. AD patients suffer from age-dependent accumulation of dysfunctional amyloid and tau proteins, leading to the deterioration of neurons. As the disease progresses, cognitive faculties become impaired, eventually resulting in death 4-10 years after diagnosis. The most important risk factor is age, and to the increasing overall age of ...
The development and validation of myocardial compartment models for the assessment and follow-up of regional functional and perfusion magnetic resonance data in acute myocardial infarction. KU Leuven
Representation and algorithms for capture, visualization and manipulation of moving 3D objects, subjects and scenes. Hasselt University
Language and imagery: neural correlates of time and place representations during sentence and text comprehension Ghent University
The functional neuroanatomy of language comprehension of text is largely unknown. Spatial semantics in sentence comprehension activate nonlinguïstic spatial brain areas. Relational concepts are constructed (in a perceptual or verbal-propositional manner) in modality-specific areas. We wonder if a a situational model on text level also has a spatial (or temporal) organisation and if sentences and text activate the same neural corelates.
Novel anatomical and functional biomarkers of lung disease and therapeutic effects in preclinical rodent models KU Leuven
Pulmonary fibrosis is the replacement of healthy tissue by an excessive deposition of extracellular matrix components leading to an irreversible destruction of the lung architecture. It is a devastating condition resulting in a decreased lung compliance, disrupted gas exchange and respiratory failure. Currently, there are two therapeutics on the market that slow down the progression of pulmonary fibrosis. Regardless many efforts made in the ...
The role of aortic side branches in the initiation and evolution of ascending aortic aneurysm and dissecting abdominal aortic aneurysm in ApoE -/- mice Ghent University
The goal of this project is to investigate the pathology of aortic aneurysms in the ApoE-/- mouse model. Using super-resolution synchrotron images and image-guided histology we will study the role of small side branches in the initation and evolution of dissecting abdominal aortic aneurysm. We will also visualize the initation and evolution of ascending aneurysms in the same mouse model.
Development of spectrally and polarization resolved high resolution second harmonic imaging for studying microtubules and mitochondrial transport. KU Leuven
Microtubules (MTs) are fibrillar structures within cells that serve as tracks to transport cellular cargo, like mitochondria. Especially in neurons, these organelles travel long distances to locally produce energy at growth cones and synaptic contacts. MTs play an important role in mitochondrial transport and defects have been described in several neurodegenerative diseases (i.e. Parkinson’s and Alzheimer). We will investigate the transport ...