Title Promoter Affiliations Abstract "DeLock - DEnitrification unLOCKed. Unlocking the N2O-reduction capacity of denitrifying microbial communities to combat N2O emissions during wastewater treatment processes." "Eveline Volcke" "Department of Green Chemistry and Technology" "In the era of global warming, solutions to reduce greenhouse gases emissions are urgently needed. Nitrous oxide (N2O) has a global warming potential almost 300 times the one of CO2, and accounts for 8% of total anthropogenic GHG emissions. The majority" "AnaEE-Flanders: Integrated infrastructure for experimental ecosystem research" "Environmental Biology" "The emerging field of ecosystem-based adaptation uses knowledge of ecosystem functioning to counter threats to natural resources and food security. Yet, the infrastructure in Flanders and Europe is not optimized for unravelling the effects of multiple, interacting environmental pressures on ecosystem functioning and the subsequent testing of innovative solutions. This challenge is tackled using a new generation of experimental facilities embedded in a European network. Various state-of-the-art set-ups are used to study effects of multiple global changes on terrestrial ecosystems with continuous tracking of responses. Impacts can be assessed in isolation, in combination (interactive effects) and along gradients of change (to detect nonlinearity and threshold responses). In addition, aquatic facilities will focus on the land-water transition, where environmental problems such as nutrient outflow, sea level rise and flooding occur. Funding is used to manage and exploit the facilities and build missing links to ensure that AnaEE-Flanders reaches its full potential, within a European network of open-access platforms to experimentally manipulate, analyse and model ecological systems." "The cascade effect of PFAAs in birds." "Ana Lopez Antia" "Behavioural Ecology & Ecophysiology" "Perfluoroalkyl acids (PFAAs) are highly persistent substances that are found globally in the environment, wildlife and humans. Despite the ubiquity of PFAAs, their toxicological and biological effects have not yet been well characterized. We will assess the effects produced by PFAA compounds in a model species (i.e. canaries), at environmentally realistic concentrations, across different levels of biological organization. For this, we will use an integrative approach that combines the latest techniques in molecular biology with the study of traditional biomarkers. Moreover, behavioural parameters (song behaviour) will also be included in the approach, which has rarely been done in ecotoxicological studies. All this will further enable us to establish linkages between the key events in the biological cascade that lead to effects on the survival or reproduction of the individual. The obtained information will be organised and evaluated, together with existing knowledge, in a standardized way that makes it useful for regulatory purposes. The final construct (Adverse Outcome Pathway) will be presented to the OECD and will help to fill an important knowledge gap." "Advancing three-dimensional biomechanical research by combining synchronized biplanar X-ray videos with multiview light videos." "Sam Van Wassenbergh" "Functional Morphology" "Quantifying how animals move is an essential first step in studies aiming at understanding the form, function, and evolution of musculoskeletal systems. During the last decade, making use of X-ray videos recorded at high speed (> 500 frames per second) from two x-ray sources and detectors has proven to be a powerful tool to accurately analyze fast, three-dimensional movements. A cutting-edge, high-speed, biplanar X-ray video system has recently became available at the University of Antwerp, which will significantly advance functional morphological and biomechanical research in Flanders. However, quite often information on the movement of the external surfaces of the animals or their surrounding fluids is extremely valuable but cannot be measured by X-ray videos alone. The proposed research will integrate traditional (i.e., visible and infra-red sensitive) high-speed videography from two views into the three-dimensional analysis of kinematics with the existing biplanar X-ray video set-up. This will significantly advance the two ongoing projects: kinematics and hydrodynamics of feeding in fishes, and the early development of locomotion in pigs. In addition, this integration of X-ray and light videos will also be highly beneficial for the numerous collaborative research projects requiring X-ray videos that are planned in the upcoming years." "Primary muscle degeneration in sporadic Inclusion-Body Myositis: combining deep-proteome data in patient muscle tissue with novel cellular models to pinpoint key mechanisms driving inflammation and aberrant protein expression." "Jonathan Baets" "Translational Neurosciences (TNW)" "Sporadic Inclusion-Body Myositis (sIBM) is the most common myopathy in older adults and has a significant impact on the quality of life; no treatment exists to date. Histopathologically sIBM is characterized by degenerative as well as inflammatory features. In addition to this evident inflammation, striking similarities are observed between sIBM and neurodegenerative diseases. Alternative disease mechanism are suspected since sIBM has no classic genetic cause nor does it respond to immunosuppression as a ""classic"" inflammatory disorder would. Previously we have taken advantage of the availability of disease tissue due to diagnostic muscle biopsies. This allows 'proteomics' studies that capture the entire set of proteins in the diseased muscle and the key 'signatures' of the underlying mechanisms. A total of 61 muscle samples of sIBM-patients and controls were studied. Integrative data-analysis points towards three crucial disease pathways. These are involved in cell growth and repair, DNA damage response and inflammation-control. In the current project we will further study the role of these pathways by performing focused protein expression studies in muscle tissue and through the specific manipulation of these pathways in human-derived myoblast cell-lines in order to reproduce both sIBM pathology and proteomesignature. This novel cell system can be used as a disease model and will aid in the design of disease 'biomarkers' and therapies for sIBM." "Development of a functional model to determine the pathogenicity of COL4A1- and COL4A2-variants of unknown significance in cerebrovascular disorders and aortic aneurysms." "Marije Meuwissen" "Medical Genetics (MEDGEN)" "COL4A1- and COL4A2-related disorders cause a broad spectrum of problems comprising abnormal brain development, brain hemorrhage at any age, aneurysms (local dilatations) of the brain arteries, but also eye or renal problems. In clinical practice, both genes are studied in disorders of brain vasculature or development and are included in gene panels to study individuals with intellectual disability. These investigations sometimes identify variants of unknown significance (VUS). Because of the important consequences of truly disease-causing mutations, it is of great importance to interpret these variants correctly. In addition, in research setting it was found that COL4A1- and COL4A2-mutations may influence the occurrence of aortic aneurysms. However, further studies are needed. We will develop a zebrafish model to study the effect of variants of unknown significance. No zebrafish model currently exists to study COL4A1- and COL4A2-related disorders. We will start with introducing known disease-causing mutations and study their effect on zebrafish development using a fish that has fluorescent blood vessels in order to easily pick up abnormal vessels. We will study the occurrence of brain haemorrhage, changes in movement patterns and the basement membrane, a structure that stabilizes the wall of blood vessels and measure the aortic diameter. After identifying the abnormalities in true disease-causing mutations, it is possible to study whether VUS contribute to disease." "Linking mitochondrial and telomere dysfunction in newborn tissues: TP53, SIRT1 and PPARGC1 alpha as a central hub?" "Tim NAWROT" "Environmental Biology" "Ageing processes are universal, inevitable, and start at the very beginning of life with an acceleration at middle-age. In later life, ageing is associated with cancer, metabolic outcomes, cardiovascular disorders, and neurodegenerative diseases. Exposures to external factors can influence the process of ageing in a positive (i.e. physical activity, healthy diet) or negative manner (i.e. smoking, lack of exercise, stress, etc.). Therefore, it is of great public health importance to investigate external factors that accelerate underlying ageing processes. In the last decade, air pollution has been pinpointed as one of the major global health problems affecting adults, children and newborns worldwide. Growing evidence shows that exposure to ambient air pollution during the most vulnerable stage in life, the in utero period, affects the development of age-related diseases as well. This grant will allow me to conduct fundamental research to identify key players that link prenatal air pollution exposure with mitochondria and telomeres - two hallmarks that define the ""core axis of ageing""." "The Flemish contribution to the European Marine Biological Resource Centre (EMBRC-ERIC)" "Zoology: Biodiversity and Toxicology" "EMBRC-ERIC, or the European Marine Biological Resource Centre, is a distributed European Research Infrastructure Cluster, which provides and supports large scale and high quality marine science in Europe. It was established to bring together the distributed infrastructures and HR in European marine research groups to answer Europe's challenges related to food, health and global change. With 9 members (Belgium, France, Greece, Israel, Italy, Norway, Portugal, Spain and the UK), this ERIC offers access to a portfolio of research platforms, biological resources, analytical services, training, expert advice and data, to users from academia to industry. For Belgium, 5 Operators are involved: 4 Flemish (UGent, VLIZ, KU Leuven and UHasselt) and 1 federal (RBINS). With this proposal, the Flemish partners aim at delivering top-level services and to coordinate and expand the training component for EMBRC. By participating in EMBRC, Flanders will be on the front stage of the Blue Growth scenario, with fundamental and applied research and education activities in sustainable aquaculture, exploitation of living resources, blue biotechnology, ecosystem health and marine management." "Microglia and neuroinflammation: transducers of amyloid beta toxicity in human Alzheimer’s disease" "Bart De Strooper" "Laboratory for the Research of Neurodegenerative Diseases (VIB-KU Leuven)" "Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is a chronic neurodegenerative disease and is the most common form of dementia worldwide. AD is characterized by the build up of abnormal protein, in the form of amyloid beta plaques and tau tangles. AD is accompanied by changes in the immune cells of the brain, the microglia. This inflammation in the brain is referred to as neuroinflammation, which may be a simple consequence of damage to nerve cells or may contribute to disease progression. Recent genetic studies reveal a link between neuroinflammation and susceptibility to develop AD, suggesting that inflammation might be a driver of the disease opposed to just a consequence. The current proposal has two complementary approaches aimed at determining the role of neuroinflammation in human AD by generating novel models where human derived cells are injected into AD mice, in order to expose those cells to the environment they would find in the pathological brain. By doing this both with neural and microglial cells, we will be able to dissect the contribution of neuroinflammation in the AD brain in two crucial human cell types. These findings would have major implications for our understanding of the progression of human AD and would allow tailored treatments to slow down or arrest AD progression. This approach addresses a critical component of the pathology in the AD brain and might yield novel drug targets with the potential to change the disease trajectory and patients’ quality of life" "Head impact biomechanics for protecting the active ageing population" "Research Group Experimental Neurosurgery and Neuroanatomy" "In Europe, the incidence of fatal and hospitalized traumatic brain injury (TBI) is 262/100.000/year. Lately, a significant increase in the proportion of elderly patients suffering TBI has been observed. This can be explained by changing demographics, better health status allowing them to remain fully active, but also by the presumed mechanical vulnerability of the ageing brain and surrounding tissues.While staying active is rightfully promoted for the elderly, protective headgear customized to the ageing brain for recreational activities associated with a risk for TBI does not exist. Although ‘only’ 18% of the current Belgian population is over 65 year of age, elderly accounted for 38% of nonconcussion TBI hospital admissions and 32% of intensive care admissions in a recent study in Leuven.The IMPAct Group will use its expertise to focus on the increasingly relevant subject of elderly TBI. This will be done by 1) studying injury patterns and risk profiles associated with elderly TBI, 2) experimentally assessing the age-specific material properties and injury thresholds of the relevant tissues (brain, meninges, vasculature) experimentally, 3) incorporating these findings into state-ofthe- art numerical head models, and finally, 4) integrating the obtained age-specific TBI mechanogenesis data into a set of injury thresholds. These can then be used for design of protective gear adapted to the active ageing."