Research Projects

With life expectancy increasing rapidly in our Western world, Alzheimer’s disease (AD), a progressive neurodegenerative disorder resulting in dementia, is becoming more common, however no cures or effective treatments are currently available. The neurotoxic amyloid-β (Aβ) peptide appears central to AD pathogenesis, and is generated by β- and γ...

Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the most common form of dementia. The main hallmark of AD is presence of the extraneuronal senile plaques composed of amyloid beta-peptide (Aβ). Aβ is produced when a transmembrane glycoprotein called Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP) is consecutively cleaved by two proteases: the γ-secretase and the β-secretase. γ...

The detection of biomarkers in body fluids is of great importance for disease early diagnosis. The clinical practice uses typically immunoassay methods (e.g. ELISA, Enzyme-Linked Immuno Sorbent Assay, and related techniques) for biomarker determination. Unfortunately, these techniques fail dramatically in a wide variety of cases where the...

As Europe’s population is ageing, long-term care for elderly citizens will become an increasing cost for society. To manage this transition healthcare policies in the EU and individual Member States are heavily focussed on extending the independent life of the elderly, with the dual aim of increasing their quality of life and reducing the costs of...

Disrupted neuronal connectivity and synapse dysfunction can manifest clinically as a range of emotional, behavioural and cognitive symptoms that are common to, and often overlapping in, mental disorders (MDs) such as major depressive disorder, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia and neurodegenerative disorders (NDs) such as Alzheimers disease and...

Given an overwhelming increase of dementia costs and an aging population, there is an urgent need for finding novel therapies for Alzheimer Disease (AD). We are, however, facing a large number of failed clinical trials and a retraction of the nervous system R&D programmes from several big pharmaceutical companies. Increased collaboration between...

Dementia is an enormous burden on society. Patients require life-long care and there is no cure or symptomatic treatment. At early phases, dementia is closely associated with synaptic degeneration and this correlates well with Tau pathology in >20 Tauopathies. Interestingly, historic observations in hamsters and squirrels show that when they enter...

The goal of the TASPPI European Training Network (ETN) is the establishment of a highly interdisciplinary research and educational training platform for early stage scientists in the Chemical Life Sciences to overcome the inherent boundaries between academia and industry and to increase their employability in both areas. To this end we have teamed...

Recent Nobel Prize-winning discoveries on circadian clock (CC) have laid the foundation for ground-breaking approaches to treat many diseases, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD). AD is a current public health priority. Amplifying the demographic burden of the rising numbers of patients is the low success rate of AD therapies. Given that CC genes...

Loneliness, which can be defined as the negative mental states (e.g. sadness, despair) that people experience when they feel that they do not have enough relationships, or not the right kinds of relationships, is a widespread phenomenon in many societies. Even prior to the current pandemic, surveys from Europe and North-America reported that 20 to...

Demographic analyses predict that one third of the 10 millions Belgian population in 2050 will be above 60 years of age. Since aging is the major risk factor for Alzheimer’s disease (AD), this increase in the proportion of seniors is closely linked to the increased prevalence of AD. With the advent of promising symptomatic treatment, it is critical...

Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's, Prion, Parkinson's diseases, Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, Spino- cerebellar Ataxia and Fronto-temporal Dementia make up a group of pathologies with distinct etiologies and pathophysiological features characterized by the accumulation in the nervous system of abnormal proteins that are toxic for...