Projects
Somatic genome instability in Tauopathies: a single cell DNA- and RNA-seq approach in humans, mice and flies to understand the disease aetiology KU Leuven
Somatically acquired genetic variation has been described in mammalian developing as well as elderly brain. It has been suggested that neurons with genetic anomalies due to genomic instability (GIN) accumulate during neurodevelopment, while these aberrant neurons are only partially retained in neurotypical adult and elderly brain following a selection process. Furthermore, the functional impact of these genomic aberrations in neurons and its ...
Pathological vessel remodeling in liver disease: a single cell transcriptome study to identify new targets KU Leuven
Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is characterized by a drastic vascular remodelling including arterial hypervascularization (AH), which massively increases the blood supply to the growing tumour, but also sinusoidal microvascular capillarization (MVC), which impedes oxygen transfer, creating hypoxia and thereby promoting HCC growth. The molecular mechanisms driving the alterations in the respective contributing cells (arterial & sinusoidal ...
High Dimensional Clustering and prediction and integrated analysis of single Cell RNAseq Data Hasselt University
Integration of Spatial Transcript- and Proteomics Techniques with Pan-cancer single cell RNA-sequencing data to interrogate the impact of immunotherapy on the Tumor Microenvironment (TME) KU Leuven
The use of a spatial omics integrating spatial transcriptomics, spatial proteomics and pan-cancer scRNA-seq data, will create a better understanding of the TMEs and the molecular mechanisms underlying response to ICB therapy. Therefore, my PhD thesis will aim to 1) develop and test pipelines that process spatial omics data and integrate scRNA-seq data in a spatial context; 2) identify cellular neighborhoods and analyze intercellular ...
Pathological vessel remodelling in hepatocellular carcinoma: a single cell and spatially resolved transcriptome and interactome study to identify new targets KU Leuven
The characteristic vascular changes in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are very distinct from those in other cancers. The liver becomes almost exclusively vascularised by hepatic arteries, while activation of different cell types in liver sinusoids result in microvascular capillarization. As a result, exchange of oxygen is impaired, aggravating tumor hypoxia and further fueling HCC growth. In a previous study, the host lab showed that ...
Determining the role of hepatic and circulatory Immune Cells on a single cell level in the Onset and Treatment of severe Alcoholic Hepatitis: The DICOTAH study. KU Leuven
Alcoholic liver disease (ALD) is a leading cause of liver-related mortality worldwide. ALD cirrhosis may suddenly develop into a lifethreatening and distinct clinical syndrome termed severe alcoholic hepatitis (sAH), reaching a short-term mortality of 20% at 1 month. sAH is hallmarked by a marked pro-inflammatory milieu in the liver and the systemic circulation, making it plausible that immunological changes are the main drivers of its sudden ...
Single cell T-cell receptor and Expression Grouped Ontologies to develop a data-driven tool to identify T-cell immunity groups within a micro-environment and characterize the complex interplay of lymphocyte subtypes contributing to an immune response University of Antwerp
Ethylene and ACC in waterlogging responses in higher plants: from single cell resolution to whole plant effects Ghent University
Floods are the second gravest disaster for agriculture, causing crop losses and jeopardizing food security. Plants respond and cope with flooding events through a series of metabolic, physiological and developmental changes, many of which depend on the plant hormone ethylene. In addition, the transport of its immediate precursor 1-aminocyclopropane-1-carboxylic acid (ACC) appears to play an important role in flooding responses. Recent studies ...