Page 48 - AnnualReportGIGA2012

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AIREWAY II - Importance and
interaction of allergy, infections
and respiratory environmental
exposures in chronic lower &
upper airway diseases
The acronym AIREWAY II (Importance and interaction of
Allergy, Infections and Respiratory Environmental expo-
sures in the development and chronicity of lower and
upperairWAYdiseases)describestheglobalobjectiveofthis
project, and builds further on our P6/35 AIREWAY
project that was initiated in 2007. With this interu-
niversity collaboration, we will further unravel the
cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying lower
(asthma and COPD) and upper (chronic rhinosinusitis
and nasal polyposis) airway diseases, with a particular
attention for the heterogeneity of these diseases, by
combining molecular expertise, mouse models and human
samples from the diferent partners of the consortium.
Findings from basic research using experimental animal
models will be validated by translational research on pre-
cious human samples. Vice versa, hypotheses generated
from observations in man will be tested at a molecular
level by using animal models in vivo and human cell cultures
in vitro.
Network composition
Coordinator: Guy Joos (Gent)
Belgian partners: Benoît Nemery (KUL), Claus Bachert
(Gent),
Renaud Louis (ULg)
International partners: Ian Adcock (imperial College Lon-
don, UK), Uwe Volker (Greifswald University, Germany)
WIBRAIN - Mechanisms of brain wiring
in normal and pathological conditions
Repair of brain networks may be considered as the ultimate
goal of treatment of neurological disorders. In addition to a nor-
mal complement of neuronal, glia and other cells, the function of
the nervous system requires that neurons integrate into circuits.
The formation of neural networks involves a sequence of fnely
choreographed cellular events that implicate neurons but also
glia and blood vessels. Despite signifcant progress, many of these
cellular events remain poorly understood and the underlying mole-
cular mechanisms are even less clearly defned. In addition, unders-
tanding neural wiring is critical to optimally harness the potential
of neurons or stem cells, and to devise novel therapeutic tools to
palliate neurological defcits. WIBRAIN is a new IAP initiative aiming
to understand critical regulators of neural wiring. An originality of
our proposal is the use of evolutionarily distant models, Drosophila
and mammals, mainly mouse and human models. This approach lays
emphasis on evolutionarily conserved mechanisms, which are likely
to be among the most important and relevant, and possibly some
divergent aspects that may shed light on the links between brain
development and evolution. Complementary competence of
the partners of our consortium will allow a multidisciplinary pers-
pective, using a panel of molecular, genetic, neurophysiological,
morphological and behavioral approaches.
Network composition
Coordinator: André Gofnet (UCL)
Belgian partners: Michele Giugliano (UA), Bassem Hassan (KUL),
Laurent
Nguyen (ULg)
, Dierk Schmucker (KUL), Pierre Vanderhaeghen (ULB),
International partners: Dietmar Reif (University of Freiburg, Switzer-
land), Benedikt Berninger (Ludwig-Maximilians-Universität, München,
Germany)
DYSCO - Dynamical systems,
control and optimization
The fundamental researchobjectiveof theDYSCOproposal
is todevelopnewmathematical tools, results and algorithms
for the modeling, control, optimization and understanding
of dynamical systems, which tend to become ever larger
andmore complex. Over the last two decades, the progress
accomplished within the “dynamical systems, control
and optimization” area has led to a spectacular expan-
sion of the methodologies and tools into an growing
number of application areas. In addition to the
fundamental objectives, we will also focus in this
proposal on particular applications in environmental
systems, communication systems, robotics, networks, biolo-
gical and bio-chemical systems and biomedical engineering.
Network composition
Coordinator: Vincent Blondel (UCL)
Belgian partners: Joseph Winkin (FUNDP), Joos Vandewalle
(KUL), Dirk Aeyels (Gent),
Rodolphe Sepulchre (ULg)
,
Alain Vande Wouwer (Mons), Rik Pintelon (VUB)
International partners: Naomi Leonard (Princeton Univer-
sity, USA), Stephen Boyd (Stanford, USA)
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