Projects
Understanding gene regulation in a whole animal: From building a regulatory atlas to decoding gene regulation with deep learning KU Leuven
Multicellular organisms consist of cells with different morphologies and functions, yet all the cells share the same genetic code. Gene regulatory networks (GRNs) govern the space and time dependent expression of genes and through gene regulation different cell types are generated and maintained. GRNs arise through interaction of transcription factors (TFs) and enhancers. Enhancers are cis-regulatory regions in the genome, that contain ...
Distributed wireless EEG sensor patches for auditory attention decoding in hearing technology KU Leuven
Over 400 million people worldwide suffer from disabling hearing loss. While the majority can be helped with a hearing aid, users still experience major difficulties in situations where multiple people talk simultaneously, leading to social isolation. Although algorithms exist to extract a single speaker from such a speech mixture, the current bottleneck is that a hearing aid does not know which of these speakers the user aims to attend. ...
Why motor adaptation deteriorates in older adults: decoding a cerebellar-based network Hasselt University
Decoding tumor antigens: dendritic cell maturation within the tumor environment Ghent University
How tumor antigens are being perceived by dendritic cells (DCs) determines whether the tumor will
be tolerated or rejected by our immune system. Over the past years, immune checkpoint blockade
therapy (ICB) has revolutionized cancer therapy by removing so-called checkpoints that prevent our
immune system from properly functioning against the tumor cells. Although ICB showed high
potential in some patients, many ...
Decoding the penile cancer tumor microenvironment: heterogeneity of tumor-associated epithelial cell states, it's relationship with HPV, and it's role in prognosis and therapy response. KU Leuven
Penile squamous cell carcinoma (pSCC) is a very rare disease (0,1-1/100 000) which displays aggressive disease biology, early dissemination and poor chemotherapy-response. These cancers can be HPV-associated or independent (HPV+/HPV-). HPV+ cancers display a better prognosis in spite of equal lymph node metastasis burden and showing higher rates of poorly differentiated disease. However, due to the rarity of this cancer, there are no data on ...
Signal processing algorithms for attention decoding of brain responses to natural stimuli in brain-computer interfaces KU Leuven
Brain-computer interfaces (BCI) enable the human brain to interact with machines, opening doors to various high-impact applications. However, most experimental BCI paradigms require the user to concentrate on synthetic and repeated stimuli, inducing fatigue and interfering with natural behavior. This unnatural interaction blocks the widespread usage of BCIs in daily-life situations beyond a few niche clinical applications.
In this ...
Decoding the molecular basis of lateral root stem cell specification in plants: C-fern as a model system Flanders Institute for Biotechnology
Decoding the Neuromodulatory Regulation of Learning and Forgetting KU Leuven
In this project we aim to deliver a much-needed understanding of the neuromodulatory signaling network that regulates learning and memory. We hypothesize that learning and memory is regulated by a neuromodulatory code and aim to unravel its fundamental principles in the well-described aversive learning circuit of C. elegans. As neuromodulatory networks are notoriously complex, such a highly controlled context for pioneering research on their ...