Name Responsible Activity "ADReM Data Lab (ADReM)" "Bart Goethals" "ADReM focuses on foundational research in the areas of databases, knowledge management, and data mining. Our research entails: - the design of both centralized and distributed database architectures for the scalable support of structured, semi-structured, and graph-oriented data models; - the study of formal query languages for the above data models, as well as the development of efficient processing and query-optimization techniques for database-oriented query languages such as SQL, XPath/XQuery and SPARQL; - the development of both deterministic and probabilistic data-cleaning techniques in the presence of logical constraints and data uncertainty; - the study of scalable data-mining principles and algorithms for the unsupervised detection of patterns in the form of statistical correlations and logical dependencies; - the study of inductive databases and query languages, towards the goal of integrating data mining technologies in database systems; - the development and application of data mining strategies for the integrative analysis and interpretation of heterogeneous biomolecular (proteome, metabolome, genome, …) profiles, structures, spectra and networks." "Data Analytics Laboratory" "Vincent Ginis" "The VUB Data Analytics Laboratory develops and adapts data-analytical tools and algorithms from fields such as machine learning and artificial intelligence which fully account for the operational setting in which the resulting analytical model or decision support system will be deployed and operated. For instance, domain expertise and business requirements with respect to the application at hand need to be acknowledged, so as to optimally align and optimize performance, e.g., by including impact on revenues, adherence to user requirements, interpretability and interaction with other systems. Depending on the perspective and the field of application, data analytics as well is referred to as business analytics, data science, data mining and business intelligence. Related fields of study are Operations Research, Machine Learning, Business Informatics, Management Science, Decision and Information Sciences.Example application domains include credit risk management, mobility and supply chain management, exploratory data analysis, constraint-based clustering, fraud detection, human resources management and customer relationship management." "Statistics and data analysis" "The need to analyze data occurs in many situations. In the natural sciences, the objective is often to discover structures and underlying patterns. In medical and pharmaceutical work, one wants to determine the most effective drug or treatment. In economics and business one tries to make predictions, as accurately as possible. In computer science and engineering, huge amounts of data need to be analyzed for computer vision, data mining, and real-time process control. For these and other tasks many statistical methods exist, involving estimating and testing, regression, time series analysis, clustering, discriminant analysis, etc. Our research focuses on the construction of robust versions of such methods, which can withstand outliers, contamination, or other artefacts. Apart from the methodological aspect, much emphasis is on the implementation of these techniques by means of algorithms and corresponding software. Our main motivation is in terms of practical applications, and a sizeable part of our work originated from collaborations with other fields." "Laboratory of cell biology and histology" "Jean-Pierre Timmermans" "The Laboratory of Cell Biology and Histology (CBH) is an interfaculty research group, uniting scientists from the Faculty of Biomedical, Pharmaceutical and Veterinary sciences and the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences. Their joint mission is to elucidate the cell biological principles of human physiology and disease, so as to expose new entry points for diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. Core research lines strongly align with key research domains at the University of Antwerp, such as Neurobiology, Oncology, Imaging and Infectious diseases. The research is fueled by solid expertise in cell, tissue and systems biology and finds a common denominator in the use and development of advanced microscopy technology. In line with the latter, CBH also operates as the Antwerp Centre for Advanced Microscopy (ACAM), providing high-end microscopy service tailored towards both ultrastructure and live cell-imaging applications. As microscopy hub, CBH is a founding member of EGAMI, the University valorisation platform for Imaging. Our core topics are: GUT PHYSIOLOGY AND DYSFUNCTION •Neuro-immune interactions in the gastrointestinal system •AAV-mediated targeting of the enteric nervous system •Effects of amyloid proteins on the enteric nervous system •The ageing epithelial gut barrier •The microbiome-gut-brainaxis (Techniques: animal models –in vitro models –histology –live cell imaging –proteomics –electrophysiology –molecular biology –viral transfection/transduction) EXPERIMENTAL LUNG RESEARCH: PHYSIOLOGY AND INJURY •Pulmonary neuroepithelialbodies (NEBs): quest for physiological stimuli •NEB microenvironment as an airway epithelial stem cell niche •Acute lung injury modulators (Techniques: functional morphology –animal models –ex vivo lung slice models – functional live cell imaging –laser microdissection–transcriptomics–pharmacology) IMMUNOLOGICAL DRUG TARGETING AND BIOMARKER DISCOVERY OF DIFFERENT PNEUMONIAS •Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) •Stroke-related pneumonia •Cystic fibrosis-related pneumonia •Pneumonia associated with ageing •Pneumonia associated with microbiome alterations (Techniques: animal models –in vitro models –clinical studies –histopathology –transcriptomics –proteomics –metabolomics –metagenomics –biomarker discovery) NEURODEGENERATION •Modulators of neuronal network connectivity •Whole brain staging of neurodegeneration •Development and characterization of models for tauopathies •Toxic protein clearance pathways (Techniques: animal models –primary cell culture –deep coverage microscopy –whole brain imaging –molecular biology –data mining) ACCELERATED AGEING •Molecular characterisation of Progeria •Mimicking laminopathies using genome editing •Uncovering the mechanisms of neurodegenerative laminopathies •Nuclear compartimentalisation in ageing and (HPV-induced) cancer (Techniques: in vitro models –primary cell culture –genome editing –deep coverage microscopy –live cell imaging –molecular biology –proteomics –kinomics–photoporation) NEXT GENERATION MICROSCOPY •Deep coverage microscopy •Intelligent microscopy •In toto microscopy •Optomodulation" "Financing, entrepreneurship and reporting" "The research activity is aimed at getting insight in a large database of financial statements of Belgian companies, by means of econometric methods as factor analysis, discriminant analysis, logit and probit and other multivariate techniques applied to financial statement information. Special attention is paid to SME's, credit policy of the firm as well as growth phenomena. In a first stage the program is rather descriptive and exploratory. In a later stage the activities are more oriented towards explanatory research whereby data are analysed in the light of modern financial theories and models. Something will be looked at in an international context. A list of other current research topics is the following: * initial public offerings (S. Vandemaele); * target costing and Interoranizational Cost Management (A. Limère); * Credit scoring (A. Limère); * Determinants of growth in Belgian Companies (A. Limère, E. Laveren, R. Mercken, K. Vanhoof); * Financial Structure of SME┌s (W. Voordeckers). Analysis and development of intelligent systems in business and finance. Regional economic development, computer auditing, business planning for SME's, SME cycle analysis, effectiveness of SME-consultancy, maintenance analysis for SME's, case-based reasoning, simulation for educational purposes." "Van Broeckhoven Lab" "Enhancing the molecular understanding of complex, neurodegenerative brain diseases like Alzheimer’s disease, frontotemporal dementia, Parkinson’s disease and Lewy Body disorders and related diseases, neurogenetics with focus on early-onset and familial brain diseases, and translational research including biosampling, biobanking and databanking, as well as DNA screening and clinico-pathological characterization of mutation carriers." "Faculty of Sciences and Bioengineering Sciences" "Faculty of Sciences " "Business Informatics" "Koen VANHOOF" "The research group Business Informatics conducts research on decision making in companies, and how modeling data, information and knowledge can support that decision making process. Key words like data mining, ICT management, process mining, process modeling and decision support systems are the focus of this team" "Information Systems Engineering Research Group (LIRIS) (main work address Leuven)" "The Leuven Institute for Research on Information Systems (LIRIS) coordinates research in the area of information technology, information systems and management in organizations. This research embodies: fundamental issues of information systems in organizations (dealing with concepts, models, generic methods, tools and techniques), applied research (relating general research results to specific problems and application areas), and research on the use and implications of information systems throughout society.Important research topics are: analysis, modeling and architecture of information systems; knowledge discovery, data and process mining; architecture and infrastructure; business data, process, service, rules and decision management; information strategy." "Internal medicine" "Sabine Allard" "The endocrinology department treats the glands with internal secretion, i.e. glands that secrete hormones into the bloodstream."