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Veerle Baekelandt, PhD

Professor at Laboratory for Neurobiology and Gene Therapy, KU Leuven

Location: Leuven, Belgium

Veerle Baekelandt, PhD, obtained a degree of Master of Romance Languages (1987), Master of Biology (1991) and a PhD in Biology (1995) at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. In 1992 she received a Frank Boas Fulbright scholarship for graduate study at Harvard University and became a research fellow in the Laboratory for Neuroscience Research headed by Dr. Larry Benowitz, Children’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston (1992-1993). In 1999 she joined as a post-doctoral fellow a new gene therapy project for neurodegenerative diseases, which was the start of her own research group. In 2003 she was appointed as assistant professor at the KU Leuven and in 2007 as full-time research professor (BOF-ZAP). She is now head of the Laboratory for Neurobiology and Gene Therapy. Her research focuses on disease modeling and therapy for Parkinson’s disease using viral vectors in cell culture and in vivo. The underlying rationale is that the generation of more relevant models in cells and in pre-clinical model brain will lead to a better insight into the molecular pathogenesis of PD and to the development of new therapeutic strategies and drugs.

ASSOCIATED GRANTS

• Study of the Molecular and Cellular Consequences of LRRK2 Kinase Inhibition in Neurons and Microglia (2015)
• LRRK2 Phosphatases Confirmation (2013)
• Is ATP13A2 a Lysosomal Lipid Flippase that Affects Alpha-synuclein Membrane Interactions? (2013)
• Functional Characterization of ATP13A2, a P-type Transport ATPase Involved in Neurodegeneration (2011)
• Identification of the LRRK2 Phosphatase (2011)
• Generation of LRRK2 Lentiviral Vectors (2011)
• Validation of FKBP inhibitors to target alpha-synuclein pathology in rodent brain (2010)
• Biochemical characterization of full length human recombinant LRRK1 and LRRK2 (2010)
• Biochemical Characterization of Full Length Human Recombinant LRRK1 and LRRK2 (2009)
• Pathophysiological Role of PINK1 in Rodent Brain (2005)