VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain & Disease Research

Sex-dependent DNA methylation in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) shows well-established sex differences in incidence, age at onset and progression, but their biological basis is unclear. We hypothesised that the DNA methylation changes associated with ALS differ between the sexes, which would point to sex-sp...

TRPM3 regulates fear memory encoding and seizure susceptibility in the lateral amygdala

Abstract Background and purpose TRPM3 is best known for its role as a peripheral sensor of pain and heat. Recent studies reporting gain‐of‐function TRPM3 mutations in patients with neurodevelopmental and epilepsy‐associated disorders suggest a previously unrecognized role of this...

Unfolding suppression: statistical learning drives suppression through dynamic attentional states

How does statistical learning drive distractor suppression? A central debate in current research concerns whether the underlying mechanism operates proactively or reactively. To address this issue, we examined the temporal dynamics of distractor suppression across four visual sea...

Nanobodies Equipped with HaloTag Enable Scalable Fluorescence-Lifetime Multiplexing

Abstract Fluorescence lifetime (FL) is a robust strategy for multiplexed imaging; however, variability in fluorophores’ local microenvironment when used on affinity probes broadens lifetime distributions, limiting its practical applicability. We create a modular platform for FL e...

Data-driven mapping of known and novel fluid biomarker progression profiles in genetic frontotemporal lobar degeneration

Abstract Introduction Recent proteomic studies have identified both established and novel proteins in genetic frontotemporal lobar degeneration (FTLD). However, it remains unclear at what point in the disease these proteins deviate from normal levels and how their trajectories re...

The sweet spot in protein design—Where deep learning meets first principles

This Perspective explores recent methods and prospective ideas for developing hybrid AI-physics-based pipelines for protein and antibody de novo design. We argue that the highest-confidence candidates emerge where deep learning and first-principles models agree, a "sweet spot" th...

The HDAC inhibitor sodium butyrate moderately enhances long-term fear extinction memory retrieval in humans

Fear extinction and its persistence depend on epigenetic modifications, which can be potentiated by histone deacetylase inhibitors (HDACis). Butyrate (NaBu), a short-chain fatty acid and endogenous HDACi, promotes persistent fear extinction in rodent models by increasing histone...

3D Radiomic Texture Analysis of Quantitative Muscle MRI Enhances the Distinction Between Myotonic Dystrophy Type 1 and Charcot–Marie‐Tooth Neuropathy Type 1A : A Proof‐of‐Concept Study

BACKGROUND: Differentiating myogenic from neurogenic neuromuscular diseases (NMDs) can be clinically challenging. While quantitative muscle MRI (qMRI) with proton density fat fraction (PDFF,%) quantifies fat replacement, it misses micro-spatial patterns linked to underlying patho...