Objectives
In general, research projects at LIVR aim to better characterize the different liver cell types in healthy and pathological conditions, and to gain a better insight in the mechanisms of liver regeneration and the pathogenesis of liver fibrosis.
The LIVR team investigates:
- the mechanisms of liver fibrosis development and resolution
- the identification of hepatic stellate cell-specific biomarkers for liver fibrosis staging
- the generation of in vitro liver disease models
- iPSC derived liver cells for in vitro disease modeling
- the role for liver progenitor cells during liver regeneration
Long term objectives are:
- Contribute to the understanding of mechanisms involved in liver fibrosis
- Discover therapeutic targets for chronic liver diseases including non-alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD).
- Develop in vitro models representative for human chronic liver disease
Events
EASL Liver Cancer Summit 2023 Practical info-EASL 2023 Symposium Practical info-Belgian Week of Gastroenterology 2023 Practical info-
Image-D: a Marie Skłodowska-Curie doctoral training network
LIVR is partner in ImAgE-D, a network that will train a new generation of Doctoral Candidates in the development and application of newly developed high speed and high-resolution imaging tools in biomedical research. The ten DCs will be cross-pollinated with concepts and skills in physics and biomedicine, in particular in super-resolution imaging, analytical image reconstruction, and optical micro-manipulation methods. These skills will be applied to reveal for the first time the functionality and morphology (below the diffraction limit of light) of living endothelial cells that present the main barrier between the blood/lymph and all organs and tissues, and how these vital cells change with ageing.
(Term: Oct 2023-Sept 2027)
DeLIVERy research network
LIVR is partner in DeLIVERy, a project funded by the European Union’s European Innovation Council (EIC) Pathfinder Open programme that aims to build a radically new technology for personalized health care, which provides, for the first time, the possibility to investigate polypharmacy on individual patients.
(Term: May 2022-April 2026)
News
LIVR publications
UPDATE DECEMBER 2023Co-publication in Science
Hippo signaling instructs ectopic but not normal organ growth. W Kowalczyk, L Romanelli, M Atkins, H Hillen, C Bravo González-Blas, J Jacobs, J Xie, S Soheily, E Verboven I M Moya, S Verhulst, M de Waegeneer, L Sansores-Garcia, L van Huffel, R L Johnson, L A van Grunsven, S Aerts, G Halder.Publication in Biomaterials
Modelling fatty liver disease with mouse liver-derived multicellular spheroids van Os EA, Cools L, Eysackers N, Szafranska K, Smout A, Verhulst S, Reynaert H, McCourt P, Mannaerts I, van Grunsven LA. Biomaterials. 2022 Nov;290:121817. doi: 10.1016/j.biomaterials.2022.121817. Epub 2022 Sep 28.IC-3Rs Symposium 2022: First place for LIVR members Mina Kazemzadeh & Laura Cools in video contest
MORE SCIENCE, MORE CARE, LESS ANIMALSPublication in Frontiers of Medicine
Improved Precision-Cut Liver Slice Cultures for Testing Drug-Induced Liver Fibrosis Liza Dewyse, Vincent De Smet, Stefaan Verhulst, Nathalie Eysackers, Rastislav Kunda, Nouredin Messaoudi, Hendrik Reynaert and Leo A. van Grunsven. doi.org/10.3389/fmed.2022.862185. Front. Med., 30 March 2022