Laboratory for Molecular Virology and Gene Therapy + Laboratory for Neurobiology and Gene Therapy
Prof. Dr. Zeger Debyser is MD (K.U. Leuven 1990) who obtained his PhD in 1994 (K.U.Leuven) on “Non-nucleoside inhibitors of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase”. After postdoctoral research on T7 DNA replication at Harvard Medical School, he returned to the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Leuven where he specialized in Laboratory Medicine with a focus on clinical virology. Since then, he published outstanding research papers on HIV integration in high impact scientific journals. His expertise and knowledge in molecular virology helped to introduce and develop HIV-1-derived lentiviral vector technology in Flanders. Lentiviral vectors are being used to generate animal models for neurodegenerative disorders. Since 1998 he has been working on this topic in a close collaboration with Prof. Dr. Veerle Baekelandt, a neuroscientist specialized in Parkinson’s disease. Prof Baekelandt got her PhD in 1995 (K.U.Leuven) and broadened her expertise in the field of neurobiology through successful and productive postdoctoral fellowships at Harvard and at the K.U. Leuven. The collaboration between Dr. Baekelandt and Dr. Debyser resulted in the invention of the technology of local somatic transgenesis. Their work is recognized internationally. Their research has been rewarded with several scientific prizes and multiple regional and European grants enabling pioneering work in non-invasive molecular imaging using lentiviral vectors.
Members of ZAP:
Zeger Debyser
Veerle Baekelandt
Postdoctoral Researchers
Rik Gijsbers
Chris Van Den Haute
Jean-Marc Taymans
Olga Krylychkina
Abdelilah Ibrahimi
Junior Researchers
Veerle Reumers
Greetje Vande Velde
Jaan Toelen
Bavo Heeman
Lentivirus vectorology Core
Martine Michiels
Irina Thiry
Sylvie De Swaef
Sofie Vets
