Repair Inducing Cognition Enhancers (RICE)

Therapeutic research in neurodegeneration mainly focusses on molecular mechanisms and disease hallmarks, but improvement on the functional level is often neglected. Therefore, the “repair team” of the NIC&R group couples a cognitive readout to molecular interventions in treatment of CNS damage so that we can provide a translational interpretation towards first-in-man trials. We focus on neurodegenerative disorders such as multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease.

You can contact us for:

• Functional and molecular readouts in animal models of multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease
• Molecular and cellular setups in relation to oligodendrocyte differentiation
• In vitro and in vivo gene-editing tools to modulate (epi)genetic processes on the cellular level (e.g. CRISPR/Cas9, in vivo micro-electroporation)

Short Bio

Peer reviewed pubmed (ncbi) publications: 58

Hirsch index Web of Science: H=20 (Sum of citations: 1097)

Hirsch index Google scholar : H=22 (Sum of citations: 1549)

1. Tiane A., Schepers M., Rombaut B., Hupperts R., Prickaerts J., Hellings N., van den Hove D., Vanmierlo T.From OPC to oligodendrocyte – an epigenetic journey Cells. 2019 Oct 11;8(10). pii: E1236. (IF 5.66)
2. Schepers M., Tiane A., Paes D., Sanchez S., Rombaut B., Piccart E., Rutten B.P.F., Brône B., Hellings N., Prickaerts J., Vanmierlo T. Targeting phosphodiesterases – towards a tailor-made approach in multiple sclerosis treatment Front. Immunol., 24 July 2019 Front Immunol. 2019 Jul 24; 10:1727 (IF 4.72)
3. Bogie J.*, Hoeks C.*, Schepers M, Tiane A., Cuypers A., Leijten F., Chintapakorn Y, Suttiyut T, Pornpakakul S., Struik D., Kerksiek A., Liu H.B., Hellings N., Martinez-Martinez P., Jonker J.W., Dewachter I., Sijbrands E., Walter J., Hendriks J., Groen A.K., Staels B., Lütjohann D., Mulder M.* & Vanmierlo T.* Dietary Sargassum fusiforme improves memory and reduces amyloid plaque load in an Alzheimer's disease mouse model. Sci Rep. 2019 Mar 20;9(1):4908. (IF 4.01)
4. Plat J, Baumgartner S, Vanmierlo T, Lütjohann D, Calkins KL, Burrin DG, Guthrie G, Thijs C, Te Velde AA, Vreugdenhil ACE, Sverdlov R, Garssen J, Wouters K, Trautwein EA, Wolfs TG, van Gorp C, Mulder MT, Riksen NP, Groen AK, Mensink R Consequences of human development in a plant-based environment. Prog Lipid Res. 2019 Apr;74:87-102. (IF 12.54)
5. Blokland A., Heckman P., Vanmierlo T., Schreiber R., Paes D., Prickaerts J. Phosphodiesterase type 4 inhibition in CNS diseases Trends in pharmacological sciences 2019 in press (IF 11.52)

IP

10/10/2019 publication PCT Patent with Application numbers EP18165843.6  PCT/EP2019/05495 WO 2019/193091 on “Selective PDE4D inhibitors against demyelinating diseases”

• Oligodendrocyte differentiation
• Epigenetic editing (CRISPR-dCas)
• Pyrosequencing
• Functional and molecular readouts in animal models of multiple sclerosis and Alzheimer’s disease
• Molecular and cellular setups in relation to microglial functioning
• In vitro and in vivo gene-editing tools to modulate (epi)genetic processes on the cellular level
• (e.g. CRISPR/Cas9, in vivo micro-electroporation)
• In silico: Exon composition mapping and isoform expression profiling (using ExonArray data or qPCR).
• In vitro:Isoform-specific knockdown and characterization of neuronal differentiation.
• In vivo: Cognitive phenotyping of rodents in behavioural tests.