91�Թ���

The Frontotemporal Degeneration community gathered in Philadelphia for the International Society for Frontotemporal Dementias (ISFTD) 15th International Conference! It was great to hear about the innovative research in speech and language in a dedicated session on Thursday. 

Prof. Lize Jiskoot (Erasmus MC Rotterdam) discussed our joint Mini Linguistic State Examination project, led at our lab by Rosie Coppieters, and Prof. Rose Bruffaerts presented research on individual-level EEG markers of language led by Stéphanie De Keulenaer. 

Some exciting collaborative cross-linguistic projects from the GENFI language working group were showcased by Arabella Bouzigues & Amelia Blesius from UCLondon.

Before the ISFTD conference, there was an inspiring meeting of the FTD Prevention Initiative, where we discussed the pathways forward for clinical trials in FTD. Patient advocates made invaluable contributions to the FPI meeting by sharing their lived experiences.

Kobe De Neve graduated from Ghent University with a degree in Linguistics and Literature and in Statistical Data Analysis. For his master’s theses, he investigated the grammar of Surinamese Dutch and the relationship between formulaic language and cognitive load. Driven by a desire to improve our understanding of language using experimental methods, his PhD focuses on the balance between coherence and creativity during language production, both in patients with neurological disease and in healthy controls.

Lisse Van Der Poel graduated from the University of Antwerp with a master’s degree in Biomedical sciences: Neurosciences. During her Master’s thesis in Rose Bruffaerts’ Computational Neurology Lab, she used eye-tracking to characterize how eye movements during naturalistic viewing change across healthy aging. Building on this work, her PhD project focuses on identifying reliable oculomotor markers of healthy cognitive aging and neurodegeneration, with the aim of supporting the early diagnosis and longitudinal monitoring of neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s Disease and Frontotemporal Degeneration.

Florin Moldovan graduated from Ghent University with a degree in Theoretical and Experimental Psychology, during which I had the pleasure of conducting my research internship at the Computational Neuroimaging Lab (Bilbao, Spain). My internship project titled ‘Multimodal Subtyping of Major Depressive Disorder: Structure-Function Coupling Underlies Cognitive Heterogeneity’ excited me to pursue a PhD in computational neuroscience. Combined with a personal desire for societal and health-related meaningful and impactful research output, I started a PhD at Rose Bruffaerts’ Computational Neurology Lab. This PhD project is focused on the neural correlates of cross-linguistic speech and language changes associated with the genetic variant of Frontotemporal Degeneration, and how these correlates can be applied in practice as markers for its early diagnosis and monitoring.

​Alec Wuyts graduated from the University of Antwerp with a master’s degree in Biomedical sciences: Neurosciences. He joins the team of Neurochemistry & Behaviour as a research & teaching assistant. He wil assist the practicals of the courses coördinated by the professors of the Experimental Neurobiology Unit and help the other researchers with their work.

In Mechelen, StopAlzheimer hosted their 2^nd Young Researcher Congress. Prof. Rose Bruffaerts presented an update on our StopAlzheimer-funded project "Quantitative speech and language markers for the diagnosis and monitoring of frontotemporal degeneration". Charissa Calemi & Hanane Kachar presented posters of their recent work. A nice picture to celebrate this day  with Joost Martens, director of Stichting Alzheimer Onderzoek, and Rose Bruffaerts, Rosie Coppieters, Charissa Calemi & Lisse Van Der Poel from the Computational Neurology group and Hanane Kachar & Rojine El Hajj from the Neurochemistry & Behavior group of prof. Debby Van Dam.

The annual PRESS>SPEAK competition for science communication took place in Antwerp on March 12th. Stéphanie De Keulenaer from the Computational Neurology group presented her doctoral research to a broad audience. Her talk "Forgetfulness or dementia? Can brain waves help tell the difference?" was awarded with the 3^rd price!

The Computational Neurology group attended the NeuroCog conference in Brussels, with keynotes on AI as a tool for understanding the brain & language and AI.

We presented one talk and 4 posters on recent work on healthy aging & neurodegenerative disease using neurophysiology and Natural Language Processing.

Picture (left to right): Mathias Huybrechts, Charissa Calemi, Stéphanie De Keulenaer, Rosie Coppieters, Didde Konings and Rose Bruffaerts

Welcome to Charissa Calemi joining the Ellender lab.

Charissa Calemi graduated from the University of Antwerp with a master’s degree in Biomedical sciences: Neurosciences. Her PhD project focuses on unraveling common neural pathways and mechanisms that underlie the early clinical phenotypes of neurodegeneration in both rodent models and humans.

The goal of this research is to identify non-invasive biomarkers for detecting neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s Disease and Frontotemporal Degeneration, at early stages. The project is supervised by Prof. Dr. Rose Bruffaerts and Prof. Dr. Tommas Ellender. 

In addition to her research, Charissa works as a mandate assistant, where she is responsible for the practical sessions for various courses organized by the professors of the Experimental Neurobiology Unit.

Welcome to Hanane Kachar.

The Computational Neurology group attended the biannual International Conference on Frontotemporal Dementias in Amsterdam to share their latest work. Prof Rose Bruffaerts gave a talk about Cross-linguistic markers in FTD, Stéphanie De Keulenaer presented her review of Electrophysiological Markers of Language in Neurodegenerative Diseases and Rosie Coppieters talked about the results of the Mini Linguistic State Exam to investigate Primary Apraxia of Speech.

The Computational Neurology group attended the 7th annual conference on Cognitive Computational Neuroscience in Boston, hosted by MIT. Mathias Huybrechts presented his work on neural oscillations in the language network.

On 27-28 May 2024, we co-organized the meeting Psycholinguistics in Flanders (PiF) together with the Brussels Centre for Language Studies (BCLS). Stéphanie De Keulenaer presented her review of Electrophysiological Markers of Language in Neurodegenerative Diseases and Rosie Coppieters talked about the results of the Mini Linguistic State Exam to investigate Primary Apraxia of Speech.

Welcome to Yasmin Cras who joined the Ellender lab.

Prof. Bruffaerts attended the Mini Linguistic State Examination Investigator Meeting organized by prof Peter Garrard in London. She presented preliminary data on the Dutch version of the Mini Linguistic State Examination (MLSE) test developed in collaboration with Prof Lize Jiskoot (Erasmus MC, Rotterdam, NL). The Dutch MLSE test aids in the early detection and subtyping of Primary Progressive Aphasia in Dutch-speaking patients in Belgium and the Netherlands.

My name is Mathias and I graduated from KU Leuven with a degree in Biomedical Engineering (specification data analytics). During my Master’s thesis, which was focused on restoring functional vision to the blind through visual implants, I had my first experience with neurosciences. This experience excited me to pursue a PhD at Rose Bruffaerts' lab, centered around the development of robust multivariate neural fingerprints of human cognition. With this work I want to innovate and lead to breakthroughs in the early and reliable diagnosis of neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s Disease and Frontotemporal Degeneration. This PhD-project is supported by a .

Welcome to Bataveljic Danijela who joined the Ellender lab.

In this year's round of the Full Open Science (FOS) Label, we are proud to award this to our research group 'Experimental Neurobiology Unit' (ENU). This research group, lead by prof. Tommas Ellender, showed high exellence towards Open Science. They published exclusively in Open Access, made many of their datasets openly available and made use of Open Licenses to allow for reuse of their work. We wish this group all the best in their upcoming Open Science practices!

Welcome to Fien van Looy and Manon Haesars (Ba Biomedical Sciences) who have joined the Ellender lab for their bachelor research project.

The Ellender lab visits VIB-KU Leuven for science talks and collaborations -  - thanks for hosting .

Bruffaerts was invited to take part in the “Spectrumlezingen” lecture series at Campus Groenenborger in Antwerpen to talk about her research. 

prof. Rose Bruffaerts and drs. Stéphanie De Keulenaer’s upcoming project on neurophysiological markers in early onset dementia was presented by Stéphanie on the IMARK & μNeuro day

Welcome to Yasmin Cras joining the Ellender lab for her MSc in Neuroscience master thesis project.

Prof. Rose Bruffaerts & drs. Stéphanie De Keulenaer attended the ISFTD conference on Frontotemporal Degeneration. Here’s prof. Bruffaerts in the Neuropsychology session, chaired by prof. Carmela Tartaglia and prof. Maria Luisa Gorno-Tempini.

PhD-project on neurophysiological markers of cognition in healthy ageing and neurodegeneration at Rose Bruffaerts lab. Graduated from the KU Leuven in Clinical Psychology with a subspecialisation in neuropsychology. During my masterthesis ‘Cognitive Modulation of Secondary Hypersensitivity’ I gained experience in translational experimental research and electrophysiological measurements.

Twitter: @DeKeulenaerS

She graduated from the University of Antwerp with a master’s degree in Neurosciences. During her master’s thesis, she investigated the role of dopamine from the ventral tegmental area (VTA) in REM sleep. Currently, the aim of her PhD project is to understand how the neuronal circuits of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) form early in postnatal development by exploring the interplay between genetic instructions and patterns of neural activity. 

Welcome to Noortje Zonnekein joining the Ellender lab for a joint PhD with Sarah Weckhuysen @ VIB Center for Molecular Neurology

The Neuronal Circuit Research group organised a symposium  (15 – 18 September) in Copenhagen on the latest research on histamine and the nervous system.

The talk “Language in the aging brain” by prof. Bruffaerts was part of the symposium “New Avenues in Cognitive Aging” hosted by Eva Van Den Bussche of the CogTex Lab from KU Leuven. Other talks in the sessions were given by Sarah De Pue (KU Leuven), Lia Kvavilashvili (University of Hertfordshire ), Thomas Hinault (Inserm) and Fabienne Collette (U Liège).

The talk “A clinical perspective of AI for neuroimaging in memory clinics” was part of the OHBM symposium “Opportunities and Barriers to Neuroimaging-based AI in Memory Clinics for Age-related Dementias” organized by Timothy Rittman, Rose Bruffaerts, AmanPreet Badhwar & Esther Bron.

See also publication:  ​

On Friday April 29 at 10:45, ENU hosts Dr. Helen Baron as an external guest speaker in the “System Neuroscience” course. 

Dr. Helen Baron, who is a neuroscientist working the MRC Brain network dynamics unit in Oxford, will talk about "Uncovering neuronal computations that support decision making using a cross-species approach". She has published on this topic in Cell in 2020.

To attend this virtual seminar, please contact prof. Rose Bruffaerts for the online link. 

On Monday March 28th, ENU hosts prof. André Mouraux from Nocions Lab (, UCLouvain) as a special guest lecturer in the System Neuroscience course. Please join us in R103 at 10.45 AM for prof. Mouraux’s interesting talk about “Functional markers of human nociception”.”

Welcome to Maartje Hof who joined the Neuronal Circuit Research group for her research project as part of her Bachelor Biochemie en Biotechnologie course at the University of Antwerpen.

Welcome to Helena Gimeno Agud who joined the Neuronal Circuit Research group as a visiting Erasmus student from the University of Barcelona

Prof. dr. Rose Bruffaerts is an Benelux+ award winner! celebrates in who are changing the world 🚀 and securing a better future for everyone. In her research at and the 91�Թ��� - µNEURO Research Centre of Excellence, she integrates aspects of cognitive , and clinical neurology to improve patient care. Congratulations 👏!Read Prof. Bruffaerts’ bio and find more information on the Top Fifty women in deeptech across the Benelux region 👉​