Projects
Pathophysiology of epileptic encephalopathies: insights from genetics in patients and in vivo modelling in zebrafish and fruit flies. University of Antwerp
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 ...
The neuroblastoma 17q enigma: exploiting zebrafish modeling to study the cooperative role of 17q genes in MYCN driven tumor formation Ghent University
Neuroblastoma is a neuronal childhood tumor that accounts for 15% of childhood cancer mortality.
The search for more effective and less toxic therapeutic options remains one of the most
challenging tasks in cancer research. The most frequent aberration in neuroblastoma is the gain of chromosome 17q. Until now, it remained unclear which genes on 17q are responsible for neuroblastoma development. Using several bioinformatics ...
Dissecting the molecular network regulating replacement tooth formation in the zebrafish Ghent University
In this project, we wish to test the hypothesis that the transcription factor runx functions in an fgf signaling loop to regulate the formation of replacement teeth in zebrafish. We will test this hypothesis by (1) manipulating fgf signaling and studying its effects on runx expression and associated phenotype, and (2) manipulating runx expression itself through gain- and loss-of-function approaches.
Retinitis pigmentosa: gene discovery and functional analysis through advanced genomics and zebrafish studies Ghent University
The general objective of this project is disease gene discovery in sporadic or autosomal recessive retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Specific objectives are: (1) prescreening of all known RP genes using next-generation sequencing (NGS); (2) identification of new disease genes through homozygosity mapping and NGS of candidate regions; (3) in vivo functional analysis of newly identified RP genes in zebrafish.
A functional genomics study in zebrafish to elucidate the role of thyroid hormones and deiodinases in early emryonic development. University of Antwerp
A system biological analysis of metal induced responses in the zebrafish, Danio rerio. University of Antwerp
CRISPR/Cas9-mediated knock-in for variant testing and disease modeling in the zebrafish model system Ghent University
CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing enables the efficient generation of animal models harboring deleterious genetic variants to investigate disease mechanisms Currently, the creation of knockout models that completely abolish the function of the gene of interest is relatively straightforward In contrast, generating precise knock-in models is technically challenging and suffers from low efficiency However, in contrast to knockout models, knock-in ...
Heading towards an in vivo predictive test for personalized ovarian cancer treatment: application of novel therapies in zebrafish patient derived xenografts Ghent University
Most ovarian cancer patients (+/-900 new cases in Belgium annually) are diagnosed at an advanced stage of the disease, resulting in a poor prognosis. Standard therapy schemes are applied to all epithelial ovarian cancers, but specific histologic subtypes like clear cell carcinoma do not respond and are often excluded from clinical trials. We aim to develop an in vivo predictive test for treatment response. Mice models are currently the gold ...