Projects
Charting the genomic landscape of hybridisation and genetic introgression across the Lake Malawi cichlid adaptive radiation. University of Antwerp
For sale: your genetic profile. Ethical problems and policy challenges of advertising and selling genetic tests directly to the public. KU Leuven
Various companies are currently selling genetic tests directly to consumers. The range of direct-to-consumer (DTC) tests available is broad, from preconceptional carrier tests for single-gene disorders to genetic association tests for predisposition to complex, multifactorial diseases. The general objective of this research project is to study ethical, legal and social issues related to DTC genetic testing. The research project will study ...
Mapping genetic interaction networks underlying complex traits via massively parallel precision genome editing KU Leuven
Finding all sequence variants that give rise to diversity among individuals and understanding how they affect specific traits is a key challenge in genetics. Through advances in genome sequencing we now know what the variants are that differ among individuals. However, with current methods it is difficult to pinpoint which of these variants contribute to a trait. Variants can also interact to mask or enhance each other’s effect, further ...
Hijacked by nature’s genetic engineer: unraveling novel interactions between Agrobacterium effectors and plant proteins KU Leuven
Agrobacterium is a captivating bacterial plant pathogen renowned for its ability to transfer genetic material into the plant genome. Humans harnessed this unique capability to create plants with desirable agronomic traits. Plant-pathogen interactions are typically determined by complex interaction networks involving both bacterial effectors and plant host proteins. While research on bacterial DNA transfer and integration has dominated the ...
A multi-modal and longitudinal approach to study the neurobiological underpinnings of disease onset and progression in genetic ALS variants: from presymptomatic to symptomatic disease stages. KU Leuven
The main goal of this project is to better understand how neurodegeneration and neuroinflammation fit in a sequential model of disease progression in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). ALS is a complex neurodegenerative disorder with a myriad of disease presentations at the clinical, genetic and pathogenic level. Neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration play a key role in ALS pathophysiology, but there is no consensus on the regional and ...
Increasing diagnostic yield in genetic childhood onset epilepsies through advanced multi-omics methods and improving mechanistic insights through the study of microglia-containing brain organoids. University of Antwerp
Developing novel highly precise RNA targeting CRISPR tools to study higher order functional organization of genetic networks KU Leuven
To understand how the genotype shapes the phenotype of an organism is an important problem in genetics. Moreover, higher-order genetic interactions are notoriously difficult to research. To study these interactions, specific and high-throughput tools are needed. However, current technologies, like RNA and CRISPR interference, are either unsuitable for genome-scale screens or have too variable and unpredictable efficiencies. In this PhD ...