September 1st, 2023
 
Welcome to the lab Sofia Gonzalez and Joren Portaels!
 
Sofia is a new PhD student in the Laval lab, who will investigate the neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative gene expression profiles and epigenetic changes in mice following HSV1 infection. Her PhD work will be part of a larger project, granted by FWO this year, that focuses on the viral etiology of Alzheimer’s disease.
 
Joren is a new PhD student, who will work on the pathogenesis of PHEV in the swine. Joren will perform a joint PhD between my lab and Prof. Nauwynck’s lab. His work will be part of our GOA project, awarded by Ghent University this year, that focuses on the impact of peripheral viral infections in the swine central nervous system.
 

Congratulations to Xixi, who was recently awarded the prestigious CSC scholarship for her PhD project on the role of Schwann cells in viral-induced neuroinflammation and Alzheimer’s disease.

This month, the Laval lab has been awarded a 4-year FWO junior grant of € 520 000 to support the lab research on the role of peripheral HSV1 infection and neuroinflammation as potential trigger mechanisms of Alzheimer’s disease. The team celebrated this good news at the Christmas market in Ghent!

Welcome to the lab Waqar Zaib!

Waqar is a new PhD student in the Laval lab, who will characterize the viral-induced neuroinflammatory and neurodegenerative processes of the swine coronavirus Porcine Hemagglutinating Encephalomyelitis Virus (PHEV) in mice

Welcome to the lab Xixi Kang!
Xixi is a new PhD student in the Laval lab, who will investigate glia cell activation during peripheral viral infections.

The Laval lab was awarded a 6-year Geconcerteerde onderzoeksacties (GOA) funding from Ghent University for the project titled “Impact of peripheral virus infection on the central nervous system”. This project will be performed in collaboration with the teams of Prof. Luc Leybaert and Prof. Labro at the faculty of medicine and the teams of Prof.Nauwynck and Prof. Favoreel at the faculty of veterinary medicine.

Ahmad is a new PhD student in the Laval Lab, who will dissect the mechanisms underlying HSV1-induced neuroinflammation in primary mouse PNS neuronal cultures. Ahmad is supported by the Stichting Alzheimer Onderzoek (SAO) foundation for this work.

Congratulations to Ya, who was recently awarded the prestigious CSC scholarship for her PhD project on the role of HSV1 infection in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease. Ya will investigate how HSV1 infection triggers neuroinflammation and neurodegeneration in mice.