Mr MOHAMED Omar Said Mohamed
defended his thesis on Friday
12 December 2008 to obtain the title of Doctor
in Sciences
Title:
Are Peri-urban mangroves viable ? Effects of sewage pollution and wood exploitation on the structure and development of the mangroves of Mombasa (Kenya)
Congratulations: "Great Distinction"
This research was carried out in the laboratory
for Plant
Science en Nature Management (APNA). Promotor: Prof.
Dr. Nico Koedam
Kim Vande Loock wint poster award op jaarlijkse meeting van European Environmental Mutagen Society
Eind september won Kim Vande Loock, doctoraatsstudent biologie in het labo cellulaire genetica, een poster award in de 38ste jaarlijkse meeting van de European Environmental Mutagen Society (EEMS) in het Kroatische Cavtat. 171 posters werden voorgesteld, vier daarvan kregen een award, elk in een andere categorie: biomonitoring, mechanisms, new methodology en regulatory and genotoxicity mechanisms.
Resultaten van nieuw ontwikkelde methode
De poster van Kim heeft als titel “Assessment of inter and intra-individual susceptibility to BPDE using an aphidicolin-block NER cell phenotype assay” en toont de resultaten van een nieuw ontwikkelde methode om de Nucleotide Excision Repair (NER) capaciteit te bestuderen met BPDE als model mutagen. Kim won de award in de categorie “new methodology”. Naast de eer en publiciteit is er aan de award een klein geldbedrag gekoppeld.
Gevoeligheid van kinderen voor omgevingspolluenten
Kim Vande Loock werkt momenteel aan haar doctoraatsonderzoek over de gevoeligheid van kinderen voor omgevingspolluenten. Haar promotor is Prof. Micheline Kirsch-Volders. Ilse Decordier is co-promotor.
Twee EU-projecten ondersteunen haar onderzoek financieel:
NewGeneris ('Newborns and Genotoxic exposure risks'), 6th Framework Programme, Priority 5: Food Quality and Safety.
ECNIS (Environmental Cancer Risk, Nutrition and Individual Susceptibility), a network of excellence operating within the European Union 6th Framework Program, Priority 5: "Food Quality and Safety"
Mrs LOMBAERT Noömi
defended her thesis on tuesday
26 Augustus 2008 to obtain the title of Doctor
in Sciences
Title:
Molecular and genetic mechanisms of (geno)toxicity induced by cobalt containing dusts
Congratulations: "Greatest Distinction"
This research was carried out
of in the laboratory for Cell
Genetics (CEGE) at the VUB - Promoter: Prof. Dr. M. Volders - Co-Promoters: Prof. Dr. D. Lison & Prof. Dr. E. Cundari
Mrs THOMAS-CHOLLIER Morgane
defended her thesis on Friday
27 June 2008 to obtain the title of Doctor
in Sciences
Title:
Evolutionary study of the Hox gene family with matrix-based bioinformatics approaches
Congratulations: "Greatest Distinction"
This research was carried out
of in the laboratory for Cell
Genetics (CEGE) at the VUB - Promoter: Prof. Dr. L. Leyns as well as in the laboratory for Genome and Network Bioinformatics (BiGre) at the ULB - Promoter: Prof. Dr. J. van Helden
Mrs SCHMITZ Nele
defended her thesis on Monday
26 May 2008 to obtain the title of Doctor
in Sciences
Title:
Growing on the edge
Hydraulic architecture of mangroves: ecological plasticity and functional significance of water conducting tissues in Rhizophora mucronata and Avicennia marina.
Congratulations: "Greatest Distinction"
This research was carried out in the laboratory
for Plant
Science en Nature Management (APNA). Promotor: Prof.
Dr. Nico Koedam
Mr LE Quang Trung
defended his thesis on Thursday
8 May 2008 to obtain the title of Doctor
in Sciences
Title:
Genotyping and phylogeography of the Salix alba-S. fragilis complex:
evidence from nuclear cyp73 intron polymorphisms
Congratulations: "Great Distinction"
This research was carried out in the laboratory
for Plant
Science en Nature Management (APNA). Promotor: Prof.
Dr. Ludwig Triest
More
information on the site of the Foundation
Lucien De Coninck. |
Lucien De Coninck award for Sandrine Godefroid
On Sunday, 30th March, at 10:30 am, the Lucien De Coninck award will be presented for the 11th time in the Rector Vermeylen hall of the Pand.
The purpose of this award, with a value of 2,000 Euro, is to honour distinguished scientific work in a spirit of liberal humanism and interdisciplinary cooperation.
Following the advice of a specialised jury, the Fund Manager, Lucien De Coninck, decided to grant the award to Dr. Sandrine Godefroid, researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel.
Sandrine Godefroid is a doctor of Botany and a dedicated researcher in the field of phytosociology, mainly in the Brussels Capital Region.
She has a very impressive scientific CV, but also spends a lot of time in the popularisation of scientific research.
|
Mrs NDUM FOY Teresia
defended her thesis on Wednesday
20 February 2008 to obtain the title of Doctor
in Sciences
Title:
Diatom community structure along a river continuum:
influence of multiple stressors in
headwaters (Zenne basin, Belgium)
Congratulations: "Great Distinction"
This research was carried out in the laboratory
for Plant
Science en Nature Management (APNA). Promotor: Prof.
Dr. Ludwig Triest
Ms.
Nani VAN GERVEN
publicly defended her PhD thesis on tuesday
December 11th 2007at 5PM in room E.0.11
Title:
Development and evaluation of vaccines based on fimbrial adhesins of Escherichia coli
Congratulations: "Greatest Distinction"
This research was carried out in the laboratory for Viral
Genetics (GEVI). The promotor is Prof. Dr. J.P. Hernalsteens.
VUB-vorsers ontdekken nieuwe kikker
Ma
08/10/07 - Een onderzoeksteam van de Vrije Universiteit Brussel
onder leiding van Sathyabhama Das Biju en Franky Bossuyt, heeft in het
regenwoud van India een kikker ontdekt die tot een van de kleinste
ter wereld mag gerekend worden.
De onderzoekers publiceerden hun vondst in het wetenschappelijke tijdschrift
Current Science. Wie het diertje in een natuurlijker omgeving wil zien,
kan een video bekijken via http://www.frogindia.org/tiny_frog.html
Meer op VRTnieuws.net
Ms.
Danuta WAWRZAK
defended her thesis on Wednesday
26 September 2007 to obtain the title of Doctor
in Sciences
Title:
Activating and blocking developmental signaling pathways
Congratulations: "Greatest Distinction"
This research was carried out
of in the laboratory for Cell
Genetics (CEGE) - Promoter: Prof. Dr. L. Leyns
Mr.
Sathyabhama Das BIJU
defended his thesis on Friday
21 September 2007 to obtain the title of Doctor
in Sciences
Title:
Frog systematics and conservation in the Western Ghats
of India
Congratulations: "Greatest Distinction"
This research was carried out in the laboratory
for Ecology and Systematics (ECOL)
Mr. Anatoly PERETYATKO
defended his thesis on the 14 of June 2007 to
obtain the title of Doctor in Sciences
Title:
Phytoplankton Dynamics in Eutrophic Peri-urban Ponds in Relation
to Biotic and Abiotic Factors; Implications for Management
and Restoration
Congratulations: "Greatest Distinction"
This research is the result of a collaboration
between the laboratory for Plant
Science en Nature Management and Brussels Instituut voor Milieubeheer (BIM)
Mr.
Erik Willems
defended his thesis on tuesday
8 May 2007 to obtain the title of Doctor
in Sciences
Title:
Embryonic stem cells as an in vitro model of the mouse
embryo
Congratulations: "Greatest Distinction"
This research was carried out in the laboratory for Cell
Genetics (CEGE)
Prof. Micheline Kirsch-Volders wordt lid van AFSSET
Prof. Micheline Kirsch-Volders is benoemd tot lid van de wetenschappelijke raad van het Agence française de sécurité
sanitaire de l'environnement et du travail (AFSSET).
Dit agentschap
opereert onder de auspiciën van de ministeries van Volkgezondheid,
Milieu en Arbeid. De belangrijkste taak van dit agentschap is te waken over
gezondheid en veiligheid op het werk.
Daarnaast verschaft AFSSET de verschillende ministeries wetenschappelijk
advies en probeert AFSSET het publieke debat mee aan te sturen.
Prof. Micheline
Kirsch-Volders is verbonden aan het Laboratorium
voor Cellulaire Genetica (faculteit
Wetenschappen).
Meer informatie over AFSSET vindt u op http://www.afsse.fr/.
Amphibians challenge traditional plate tectonic models
One of the most important and far-ranging geological theories
of all time is that of plate tectonics, the notion that many
continents and islands (South America, Africa, India, Madagascar,
Antarctica,…) once formed a single ‘supercontinent’ called
Gondwana, and steadily moved away from each other to give rise
to the modern oceans. Ever since Alfred Wegener proposed this
theory in 1915, biologists have used it to explain the distribution
of many plants and animals across the world.
With improving precision, geologists have shown that Gondwana’s
major landmasses started separating in the Early Cretaceous period
(approximately 145-100 million years ago). This information provides
an estimate for the time at which plants and animal species on
disconnected continents diverged from each other.
However, in a recent paper in the journal PloS One
by Van Bocxlaer et al., a team of Belgian and Indian scientists
led by Franky
Bossuyt (Vrije Universiteit Brussel) found a different pattern.
Based on DNA sequences, they discovered that two large frog
families simultaneously spread across most of Gondwana’s
continents in the Late Cretaceous (100-65 million years ago),
long after
these landmasses started moving apart.
Because amphibians cannot survive in salty environments for
a long time, it is unlikely that these frogs acquired their widespread
distribution by swimming or rafting across the rapidly widening
oceans between the continents. Instead, the scientists suggest
that intervening, presently submerged landbridges may have connected
the separating continents and allowed faunal interchange for
a prolonged period. Palaeontologists had already noticed that
mammalian, dinosaur, and crocodilian taxa attained widespread
distributions only by the Late Cretaceous, i.e., after the geological
break-up events.
The study also shows that landmasses that are now unviable for most species,
such as Antarctica, must have played a central role in the Late Cretaceous
range extensions of animals.
Both pictures display a treefrog from India.
The closest relatives of this family of Asian treefrogs is a group of frogs that
lives in Madagascar. Both families probably diverged after the traditionally
depicted geological break-up of India and Madagascar at 88 million years
ago, which indicates that a terrestrial landbridge (in this case the Seychelles
plateau) may have connected these landmasses for a prolonged time.
Contact information:
Franky Bossuyt
E-mail: fbossuyt@vub.ac.be
Tel.: +32-2-6293648
Website: http://www.amphibia.be/
Mr. Joris VERHEYDE
defended his thesis on friday 15 December 2006 to
obtain the titel of Doctor in Sciences
Title:
Ionizing radiation induced transcriptional changes
in the developing mouse brain
Congratulations: "Greatest Distinction"
This research is the result of a collaboration
between the laboratory for Cell
Genetics and the Belgian
Nuclear Research Center (SCK-CEN)
Op 1 december 2006 organiseerde “ The Belgian Society
for Toxicology and Ecotoxicology & The Belgian Environmental
Mutagen Society” een meeting “New Methods in
(Geno) Toxicology & Ecotoxicology” in Leuven.
Tijdens deze meeting, met speciale aandacht voor het onderzoek
van jonge doctoraatsstudenten, ontving ons AAP lid Veerle
Mommaerts de prijs van beste poster:
“ Risk assesment analysis for insect growth regulatory pesticides with
a terrestrial insect, the bumblebee Bombus terrestris”
Dit onderzoek werd uitgevoerd door: Veerle Mommaerts, Guido
Sterk en Guy Smagghe.
Een samenwerking tussen het laboratorium voor Cellulaire
Genetica en de bedrijf Biobest.
