Projects
Hearing impairment in children with congenital cytomegalovirus: long-term follow-up and hunt for therapy. Ghent University
With a reported prevalence of 7 per 1000 births, congenital cytomegalovirus (cCMV) is a frequent condition. In addition to the risk for neurodevelopmental disabilities, it is the major cause of congenital nonhereditary sensorineural hearing loss in developed countries. Hearing loss can be unilateral or bilateral and the extent varies from mild to profound. It may be present at birth or develop within the following years. Progressive and ...
Understanding the vulnerability of the ageing heart KU Leuven
A novel molecular and personalized prognostic and predictive approach to inflammatory bowel diseases KU Leuven
The inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) represent a spectrum of chronic immune-mediated disorders of the gut and extra-intestinal organs with Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC) as the two main phenotypes. There is substantial inter-individual variability in the clinical presentation and the outcome of IBD. Despite the important progress in therapeutic discovery, clinical and mucosal remission rates leave large margins for ...
The female perspective of aggression in a free-living songbird: studying female competitive trait expression within a behavioural syndrome and life history framework. University of Antwerp
Three-dimensional holo’omic landscapes to unveil host-microbiota interactions shaping animal production KU Leuven
Understanding the interplay between animals and microorganisms associated with them has been recognised as an essential step for improving animal health, welfare and production. To understand the biomolecular interactions that impact production processes, researchers are implementing novel analytical strategies based on studying host genomes, their microbial metagenomes as well as the different ‘omic layers interconnecting them. However, such ...
Screening the morphological landscape of amyloid aggregates with atomic force microscopy and infrared spectroscopy. KU Leuven
Amyloids exhibit structural diversity based on their aggregation states (oligomers, seeds, end state fibrils, etc.) and can form distinct structural polymorphs. Crucially, this diversity correlates with different pathological outcomes and rates of disease progression. This project aims at deepening our understanding of the inconsistencies between in vivo and in vitro amyloid formation and how amyloid polymorphism correlates with variable ...
Genetic improvement of native phytoseiid predators in support of integrated pest management of spider mites and thrips in Vietnam Ghent University
Thrips and spider mites are major pests in Vietnamese crops.
Farmers still heavily rely on chemical pesticides for their control,
negatively affecting the environment and human health. It would be
more sustainable to adopt an "integrated pest management"
approach in which predatory mites (Phytoseiidae) suppress the pest,
...