Research Projects

The fact that the brain is influenced by the microorganisms that make up the gut microbiome substantially widens the scope of how we need to view human neurocognition and behaviour. However, a clear understanding of underlying mechanisms is scant and mainly grounded in animal work. This proposal aims at major contributions towards overcoming these...

Sporadic Alzheimer’s Disease (AD) accounts for the overwhelming majority of all AD cases and exclusively affects people at old age. However, mechanistic links between aging and AD pathology remain elusive. We recently discovered that in contrast to iPSC models, direct conversion of human fibroblasts into induced neurons (iNs) preserves signatures...

I am a stem cell biologist specialized on modeling human neurodegenerative diseases. During my PhD with Dr. O. Brüstle (University of Bonn), I was trained in human stem cell and reprogramming technologies working on human models for Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). As a postdoc at the Salk Institute with Dr. F. H. Gage, I acquired and strong foundation in...

The BEDMOND project aims at developing an ICT-based system for an early detection of  Alzheimer’s disease and other neurodegenerative diseases, based on a behavioural change to approach and focused in elderly people while living at home in an Ambient Assisted Living  environment. With such an early detection health professionals can later on apply...

Establishing efficient prevention strategies for dementia and Alzheimer's disease is a major health priority. Since the cascade of events leading to Alzheimer's disease begins many years before the disease is detected, efficient prevention should be initiated early.

This requires identifying individuals in the general population who are at high...

The calcium sensing receptor (CaSR) is a class C Gprotein-coupled receptor that plays a pivotal role in systemic calcium metabolism by regulating parathyroid hormone secretion and urinary Ca excretion. Abnormal CaSR function is implicated in calciotropic disorders, and in non-calciotropic disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD), cardiovascular...

Celeris Therapeutics is a deep learning company that uses innovative, in-silico methods such as geometric deep learning and graph neural networks to degrade currently undruggable targets (pathogenic proteins). The platform shall make a broad impact by addressing currently incureable diseases such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and different types of...

Frailty leads to reduced competence in activities of daily living, independence, as well as secondary health problems and threats, e.g. falls, depression, anxiety and isolation. Frailty in persons with dementia interacts within a “vicious circle”, promoting physical decline. CO-TRAIN will develop a coaching system for functional exercise training...

Common mechanisms and pathways in Stroke and Alzheimer's disease. It has long been recognized that stroke and (Alzheimer’s Disease) AD often co-occur and have an overlapping pathogenesis. As such, these two diseases are not considered fellow travelers, but rather partners in crime. This multidisciplinary consortium includes epidemiologists...

The COVID pandemic can be seen as an experiment done with the entirety of humankind (as almost everybody has been or will get infected with SARS-CoV-2). It will therefore have the best coverage over the widest variation possible and is therefore ideally suited to study the effects of infections with SARS-CoV-2 on large quantities of heterogeneous...

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is the second most common form of dementia. A pathological hallmark is the formation of protein aggregates that consist mainly of Tau or TDP43. Patients suffer from the degeneration of the frontal and temporal lobes with no effective treatments being available. The recent advancement of 3D brain organoid cultures grown...

DayGuide introduces a novel ICT-based system, supporting older adults suffering from mild cognitive impairment and early dementia in their daily life and their families. The system also supports persons living alone with no care person available on a regular basis. Persons with cognitive impairment experience various domestic challenges, depriving...