|
The VUB Francqui-Collen Chair 2024 “Plasticity in the brain – toward lifelong recovery from injury and disease” has been appointed to Professor Lutgarde Arckens from KU Leuven.We are happy to invite you to the inaugural lecture and lessons by Prof. Arckens @ VUB campus Jette.Lutgarde Arckens was appointed Associate Professor in 2003 and is head of the Neuroplasticity and Neuroproteomics Lab at KU Leuven. She received her PhD in Biology in 1995 and since then held positions as coordinator of her research group, of the Division of Animal Physiology and Neurobiology, and of the Biology Department. She became Full Professor in 2006. In 2010 she was elected as member, and in 2014 as Chair of the Advisory Board for selection of Senior Academic Staff for the Faculty of Sciences, KU Leuven. She has trained more than 10 junior laboratory technicians, 85 MSc students, 30 Belgian/foreign PhD students, and more than 15 post-doc fellows. Currently she supervises 5 PhD students and 5 postdocs. Over the past years, she obtained many projects & grants, including EU grants (COST, CELSA, Eranet), (inter)national grants (KU Leuven, FWO, IWT grants & fellowships, HERCULES, Canadian & Polish funding), as (co)-promoter and scientific advisor. Her research focuses on studying the mechanisms of brain plasticity in health, disease and aging. She makes use of sensory deprivation models (vision loss) and injury models (TBI). She develops and applies state-of-the-art technologies, including drug/toxin administration, opto- and pharmacogenetics, functional proteomics, single cell transcriptomics and cell sorting strategies to disentangle cell type-specific and cell circuit contributions to functional brain recovery from injury. Efforts are maximized by comparing species with different capacities for neuroplasticity including killifish, mouse and cat.
https://bio.kuleuven.be/df/la
The Francqui-Collen Chair is hosted by Prof Ann Massie..
After obtaining a PhD in Biology (2003) at KU Leuven (promotors Prof. F. Vandesande and Prof. L. Arckens), Ann Massie did a postdoc at VUB. At the same university, she was appointed as Assistant Professor (2011), Associate Professor (2017) and Professor (2022). Since 2014, she is head of the research group Neuro-Aging & Viro-Immunotherapy (NAVI). She has trained more than 50 MSc students, 10 Belgian/foreign PhD students, and 2 postdoc fellows. Currently she supervises 7 PhD students and 1 postdoc.
https://navi.research.vub.be
Professor Arckens will give five lectures as VUB Francqui-Collen Chair Holder. The venue is Brussels Health Campus, Laarbeeklaan 103, Brussels. During these lectures, Professor Arckens will show the audience how creating detailed knowledge about common and specific principles and mechanisms that guide brain plasticity during development and adulthood - and across modalities, such as vision and touch - might lead to repair strategies that are effective under a wide range of circumstances, injuries and diseases. Following aspects will be addressed:
|