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Louvain Aging Brain Lab

ions | Bruxelles Woluwe, Louvain-la-Neuve

The Louvain Aging Brain LAB aims to study the manifestations related to normal and pathological aging, including those caused by Alzheimer's disease and other related diseases. Our research tools include neuropsychological tests (e.g., memory, language tests), imaging techniques (MRI/PET) that measure brain lesions or their effects on the brain, biological analyses of the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) and plasma, the analysis of genetic risk factors, and post-mortem analyses of human brain samples using both high-field neuroimaging and mass spectrometry for biochemical characterization of brain proteins. Our populations of interest include patients with cognitive impairment who visit the memory clinic, asymptomatic people with a family risk of developing Alzheimer's disease, and both young and old clinically normal individuals.

The Louvain Aging Brain is also interested in exploring the cognitive difficulties that are encountered in other neurodegenerative diseases, such as frontotemporal lobe degeneration (FTLD), cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), and parkinsonian syndromes. Through this spectrum of diseases, our aim is to better understand the links between the biochemical alterations observed on some proteins, the regional distribution of various neuropathologies in the brain, and cognitive symptoms.

 

Bernard Hanseeuw (Principal Investigator)

Adrian Ivanoiu (Principal Investigator)

Clémence Balty (Postdoctoral researcher)

Flo Blondiaux Pirson (Postdoctoral researcher)

Nicolas Delinte (Postdoctoral researcher)

Thomas Gérard (MD, Postdoctoral researcher)

Vincent Malotaux (Postdoctoral researcher)

Lisa Quenon (Postdoctoral researcher)

Jean-Louis Bayart (PhD student)

Graziella de Broqueville (MD, PhD student)

Paul Dulieu (PhD Student)

Guy Gikelekele (MD, PhD student)

Julia Goloubeva (PhD Student)

Lara Huyghe (PhD student)

Adrien Kirsh (MD, PhD student)

Amina Sellimi (MD, PhD student)

Axelle A.T. Vanparys (PhD student)

Youssef Bellaali (Alumni)

Emilien Boyer (Alumni)

Lise Colmant (Alumni)

Nathalie Kyalu Ngoie Zola (Alumni)

Mélina Regy (Alumni)

Yasmine Salman (Alumni)

 

UCLouvain / Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc collaborations

  • Laurence Dricot, Neuroimaging Plateform (NIMA), Institute of NeuroScience, UCLouvain, Belgium.
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  • Renaud Lhommel: Nuclear Medicine Department, Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc and Institut de recherche expérimentale et clinique (IREC), MIRO Lab, UCLouvain, Brussels, Belgium. 
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  • Philippe Lefèvre: Institute of Information and Communication Technologies, Electronics and Applied Mathematics, UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
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  • Benoit Macq, Institute of Information and Communication Technologies, Electronics and Applied Mathematics, UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
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  • Pascal Kienlen-Campard: AGing And Dementia lab (AGAD), Institute of NeuroScience, UCLouvain, Belgium.
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  • Didier Vertommen: MassProt platform, De Duve Institute, UCLouvain, Belgium.
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  • Bernard Gallez & Nicolas Joudiou: Louvain Drug Research Institute (LDRI), Biomedical Magnetic Resonance Lab, Nuclear & Electron Spin technologies platform, UCLouvain, Brussels, Belgium.
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  • Benoît Lengelé & Catherine Behets : Institut de recherche expérimentale et clinique (IREC), Anatomy Lab, UCLouvain, Brussels, Belgium. 
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  • Valérie Goffaux, Psychological Sciences Research Institute (IPSY), UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium.
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  • Dr. Morel Lawson, Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc, Brussels, Belgium.

National and international collaborations

  • Christine Bastin, GIGA CRC In vivo Imaging (Aging & Memory), Liège, Belgium.
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  • Dietmar Thal & Sandra Tomé: Leuven Brain Institute, Laboratory of neuropathology, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium.
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  • Nikolai Axmacher: Department of Neuropsychology, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Faculty of Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Germany.
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  • Nicolas Villain : Institut de la Mémoire et de la Maladie d’Alzheimer (IM2A), Hôpital de la Pitié-Salpêtrière & Paris Brain Institute, Paris, France

Research networks

  • Amypad (PI: Frederik Barkho, Department of Radiology and Nuclear Medicine, VU University Medical Center, Amsterdam, Netherlands).
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  • MedResyst (PI: Benoît Macq, Institute for Information and Communication Technologies, Electronics, and Applied Mathematics (ICTEAM), Louvain School of Engineering, UCLouvain, Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium).
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  • Innoviris Translate AD (PI: Sebastiaan Engelborghs, NEUR Research Group, Center for Neurosciences (C4N), Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Brussels, Belgium). 

Fundings 

Fondation Saint-Luc, Fondation Louvain, Fondation Stop Alzheimer

  • Clémence Balty: PTauMS - elucidate the role of post-translational modifications of the tau protein in pathogenic tau precipitation
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  • Jean-Louis Bayart: Study and explore new blood biomarkers for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease and its differential diagnosis with other neurodegenerative diseases
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  • Paul Dulieu: Development and validation of unsupervised remote cognitive tasks targeting the entorhinal/perirhinal networks, combined with plasma biomarkers and tau-PET imaging, for the early screening and longitudinal prediction of preclinical Alzheimer's disease
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  • Flo Blondiaux Pirson: Data management & development of a clinical value-driven data-sharing ecosystem for the Translate-AD initiative (Innoviris)
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  • Graziella de Broqueville : Use of biomarkers of neurodegeneration, neuroinflammation and cognitive frailty to assess the onset of behavioral symptoms and functional decline in old (frail) individuals with cognitive impairment 
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  • Nicolas Delinte: Study of the microstructural properties of the brain via diffusion MRI to create biomarkers for Alzheimer’s disease
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  • Thomas Gérard:  Integrating [18F]MK-6240 tau PET and blood-based biomarkers for the diagnosis, monitoring and stratification of Alzheimer’s disease
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  • Guy Gikelekele : Impact of risk factors and biomarkers on neuropsychiatric symptoms in individuals aged 65 years and older according to cognitive status in Kinshasa
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  • Julia Goloubeva: Combining biofluid, neuroimaging and neuropathological approaches to better identify LATE in-vivo and distinguish it from Alzheimer’s disease
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  • Lara Huyghe: Study of cognitive changes occurring early in Alzheimer's disease and their links with regional deposits of tau protein and other biomarkers of the disease
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  • Adrien Kirsh: Post-translational modifications of lysines in Tau (ubiquitination, acetylation): role in protein aggregation and degradation, and potential as biomarkers for Alzheimer's disease
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  • Vincent Malotaux: Resting-state fMRI connectivity as a biomarker of tau propagation and cognitive decline across the Alzheimer's disease continuum
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  • Lisa Quenon: Deep cognitive phenotyping and plasma analyses to predict early tau aggregation in preclinical AD
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  • Amina Sellimi : Biomarkers of inflammation to understand brain haemorrhage in cerebral amyloid angiopathy
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  • Axelle A.T. Vanparys: UbiTau - This project investigates the role of ubiquitination impairment as both a biomarker of tauopathies, focusing on human brain and cerebrospinal fluid, and as a causative agent of these diseases, using specific biological models

Publications