Aline Verstraeten is a BOF research professor at the University of Antwerp and was recently granted an ERC Starting Grant (BREAK-OUT) for her aortopathy research. Consult her FRIS profile here.

The academic journey of Aline Verstraeten started in 2010, when she embarked on a PhD on the genetics of Parkinson’s disease in the lab of Prof. Christine Van Broeckhoven at the University of Antwerp. Upon PhD completion she moved to the Cardiogenomics lab of Prof. Bart Loeys, where she applied the previously acquired high-throughput DNA sequencing (i.e., whole exome/genome sequencing) expertise to the field of thoracic aortic aneurysm and dissection, a silent killer characterized by progressive enlargement and, ultimately, rupture of the human body’s largest artery. Over time, her interest increasingly shifted towards elucidation of the downstream molecular consequences of thoracic aortic aneurysm and dissection-causing DNA defects using RNA-sequencing approaches in mouse and human stem cell-derived cell models. Research stays at Johns Hopkins University (USA) and the Freie Universität Berlin (Germany) were done to gain relevant expertise in these topics. Since 2019, Aline Verstraeten is appointed as an assistant professor at the University of Antwerp, where she heads the ‘Functional Genomics in Cardiovascular and Connective Tissue Diseases’ team. The group has ongoing research lines on aneurysmal disease mostly, as well as on skeletal dysplasia, a clinically dissimilar but molecularly remarkably alike condition. 

The ultimate goal of the team’s research is to contribute to the development of novel medical treatments for the pathologies of interest. To achieve this goal, insights in the disease mechanisms must be gained through a thorough comparison of the molecular processes between the disease and healthy situation in physiologically relevant model systems (e.g., organisms, tissues, cells, etc.). In case of aortic aneurysms, late-stage patient aorta samples can be obtained upon preventive surgery. Early-stage patient or healthy aorta samples, however, are largely beyond reach, encumbering efficient use of surgical aortic specimens for preclinical thoracic aortic aneurysm and dissection research. Aline Verstraeten currently mostly uses mouse models as an alternative, as mice have a vascular system that highly resembles that of humans and because they have been shown to recapitulate the human aneurysmal situation rather well. Currently, the team is using mice to explore the cell type-specific processes underlying IPO8-related aortopathy, a mechanistically elusive early-onset aortic aneurysm syndrome that was first described in 2021 by the Verstraeten lab. As mice inevitably differ from humans, sometimes hampering translation of pathophysiological findings to the human situation, Aline Verstraeten is developing human patient and control-derived aorta-on-a-chip models in parallel. Following blood sampling stem cells are created, which are differentiated into the different cell types that make up the aortic wall. These cells are cultured in a layered tubular structure in a microfluidic chip, allowing mechanistic investigation and drug testing for aneurysmal disease in miniature lab-made patient and control aortas. For her aortopathy research, Aline Verstraeten was recently granted an ERC Starting Grant (BREAK-OUT).