The lab: Van Den Bosch group

VIB

Lab's research themes:

The Van Den Bosch Lab focuses on the mechanisms of acute and chronic axonal and neuronal degeneration and regeneration, aiming to contribute to the development of new therapeutic strategies for neurodegenerative disorders. We intensively study motor neuron diseases (amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and hereditary motor neuropathies), frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and stroke.

Merits of the lab:

Our lab is embedded in the university hospital Gasthuisberg, KULeuven and the Department of Neurology Leuven,BE. Several lab members have a MD background and combine their neurology practice with experiments in the lab. Previous research results have a.o. lead to the start up company Augustine Therapeutics

Why do we want medical doctors?

We are fully embedded in both a leading European hospital, University Hospital Gasthuisberg, with a large outpatient ALS center. The team hosts a mixture of MDs, PhDs and MDPhDs of diverse background. At present the team is composed of 35 members with several senior investigators.

Country: Belgium
Supervisor: Ludo Van Den Bosch
Research group website

The position

What’s the main purpose of our research?

The project focuses on the development of a personalized in vivo screening model for amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) using patient-derived cells and zebrafish.

How we will do it?

We will use pluripotent stem cells generated from ALS patients converted into neuronal precursor cells to be injected into zebrafish embryos. These cells differentiate in the embryos into motor neurons and allow us to systematically investigate how patient-derived cells differ from controls.

Why is this important?

This novel humanized in vivo model to screen for therapeutic options reversing the observed phenotypes, which could be unique for each patient. In this way, we aim to develop a personalized therapeutic strategy for each individual ALS patient.

Who is a good fit for the project?

A medical background in neurology is required – no specific technological background.

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