Projects
Tissue engineering in Ophthalmology: Regenerating the Anterior Cornea using Self-Aligning Human Recombinant Collagen nanoscaffolds and Corneal Epithelial Stem Cells. University of Antwerp
Artificial Lithographic MODel for COrNeal drug Screening Ghent University
The cornea is the transparent window to the eye and as such, eye drops are an interesting route of drug administration. In this project, we propose the development of a 3D corneal cell model that can be used to investigate corneal drug interaction. Studies that aim to simulate the pharmacokinetics and toxicological properties of drugs are mainly based on oversimplified 2D monocultures or animal studies that suffer from interspecies ...
Role of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) -isoforms in pathological retinal angiogenesis and neurogenesis. KU Leuven
Towards a paradigm shift in glaucoma: exploring retinal microvasculature for sight. KU Leuven
In cooperation with the Vito AI team, statistical models will be developed to eventually develop a software that can be used in the clinic to determine a risk profile for glaucoma (progression) for individual patients and thus facilitate clinical decision making. This project continues and reinforces the multi-disciplinary approach initiated by the current Leuven Eye Study (LES) team, which is required to use the very rich source of clinical ...
New developments in glaucoma therapy. KU Leuven
Regenerative medicine for the corneal endothelium: self-unfolding, thermo-responsive bioengineered corneal grafts Vrije Universiteit Brussel
— a layer of corneal cells — gets damaged or diseased, inhibiting the cells' capacity to grow. To cure
this form of blindness, most patients need an endothelium transplant. A transplant that only 1 in 70
patients currently receive due to a lack in donor tissue, and complexity of the surgical procedure.
This project aims ...
Multimodal imaging of retinal manifestations of Alzheimer’s disease for early diagnosis and clinical research KU Leuven
Although Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is the number one dementia cause, the currently available diagnostic techniques (brain imaging and cerebrospinal fluid sampling) do not allow preclinical diagnosis or screening due to their high cost, limited resolution and invasiveness. These limitations result in delayed treatment onset and unsuccessful drug development. The retina offers a unique opportunity to overcome these limitations since the ...
High-intensity interval training in patients with glaucoma (HIT GLAUCOMA). KU Leuven
Glaucoma is a chronic disorder of the optic nerve and is estimated to affect 120 million people by the year 2040. The only available treatment is to lower the eye pressure, either by surgery or medication. However, more than one third of glaucoma patients in Europe never experienced high eye pressures. Literature states these patients have microvascular abnormalities. Physical exercise training (high-intensity interval training) increases ...
Worldwide Consortium of Retinal Imaging for Alzheimer's Disease KU Leuven
The innovative goal of the BRAINSTORM project is to guide clinical management of Alzheimer's disease (AD) by detecting the disease in the pre-symptomatic phase in a non-invasive, rapid and cost-effective manner. The consortium consists of leading clinicians and scientists with diverse expertise, all with the aim of evaluating multimodal, retinal biomarkers in AD. They achieve this by evaluating a) retinal, hyperspectral, photographic, OCT and ...