Research Projects

Microglia are the resident immune cells of the brain, display extensive heterogeneity, and contribute to a wide range of cellular processes in both homeostasis and disease. They play a major role in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD), the leading cause of dementia and a major cause of mortality worldwide. Microglia closely interact with...

Microglia are immune cells that monitor our brain and degrade unhealthy neurons and excess synapses. In Alzheimer’s disease (AD) however, microglia excessively destroy synapses, marking them as enticing treatment targets. AD patients accumulate cortical Amyloid-beta (Aβ) plaques and neurofibrillary tau tangles, whilst losing neurons and synapses...

Vascular dementia and heart failure represent major health burden to morbidity, mortality and quality of life. Comorbidities (hypertension, aging, diabetes, etc.) affect all organs, but the brain and heart are especially sensitive to these chronic stresses resulting in cognitive impairment (a mental disorder) and heart failure (a non-mental...

Severe neuronal disorders such as dementia affect more than 1 billion people globally and account for economic burden far exceeding that of cancer. Our only chance of treating dementia is improving our understanding of how brains function at diverse levels of complexity. This will only be possible through better technologies, which already reflects...

Mitochondrial dysfunction is a major hallmark of various neurodegenerative disorders including Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, Huntington’s diseases or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). However linking mitochondrial dysfunction to the pathogenesis of some of these diseases still needs to be elucidated. Furthermore, in pathologies where...

The aim of CONFIDENCE is to develop a community-based mobility safeguarding assistance service for people suffering from mild to moderate dementia. CONFIDENCE combines “assistive technologies” with “personal help”. The CONFIDENCE service is built around a “virtual companion” providing different levels of assistance, depending on the situational...

Graphs are used in modern neuroscience to represent structural and functional connectivity of the brain acquired using magnetic resonance imaging. A number of pathologies affect these networks: their study holds vast promise for understanding and diagnosing brain diseases. But brain connectivity data is not trivial to process, and the predominant...

Dementia researchers are increasingly focusing their efforts on finding ways to prevent the onset of dementia symptoms in the first place, and for this they need to work with people who are still in the very earliest stages of the disease. The MOPEAD project aims to identify and test different models for engaging with this important group and...

Background and rationale: Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the main cause of dementia, with substantial socio-economic burdens. Due to the absence of a cure, understanding disease mechanisms and developing new therapies is crucial. Age-related systemic and brain inflammation contributes to cognitive decline. Inhibiting prostaglandin 2 (PGE2) - PGE2...

The societal burden of brain disorders, such as multiple sclerosis (MS), Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease is enormous and is considered one of the world’s most important health challenges. They affect millions of people worldwide and the annual healthcare costs are high and are increasing with the aging population. There is an immediate need to...

Generation of toxic oligomers during aggregation of amyloid beta peptide (Abeta42) into amyloid fibrils is a central event in Alzheimer disease. Understanding the aggregation process is therefore one important step towards therapy and diagnosis of the disease. We propose a physical chemistry approach with the goal of finding the molecular...

The ambitious goal of this project is to reveal the molecular mechanisms of presynaptic plasticity in the vertebrate brain. Synaptic plasticity occurs in the form of alterations in both presynaptic neurotransmitter release and postsynaptic receptor function. However, due to technical reasons and in contrast to intensely studied postsynaptic...