Laureates 2015
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LAUREATES 2015 FUNDS FOR MEDICAL SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH MANAGED BY THE KING BAUDOUIN FOUNDATION THE FUNDS FOR MEDICAL SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH MANAGED BY THE KING BAUDOUIN FOUNDATION During the past decade the King Baudouin Foundation has developed numerous activities in the areas of health and medical scientific research. The Foundation supports initiatives that create opportunities for citizens to live healthier lives or fight diseases more effectively, and initiatives that contribute towards building a health care system that is accessible to all and accepted by society. In the area of medical scientific research, the Foundation already administers 55 Funds carrying out research in very diverse fields such as cancer, asthma, rare diseases, ageing, neurology, cardiology and others. Most of these Funds have been set up by individual donors with a clear motivation, for example to support a specific area of research on the basis of a personal experience or a sense of gratitude towards a specific institution or department etc. Each Fund has its own management committee which is supported by an independent jury and makes decisions on the use of the financial resources, the definition of the Fund's mission etc. "Thanks to research and These Funds are managed in such a way that the donor's wishes are economic and social considered paramount and a tailored approach is developed. At the same time the Foundation seeks to make the best possible use of the progress, we are leading resources available and to create the greatest possible impact. This longer and healthier may lead to choosing specific niche areas of research, supporting lives, but we still have a young and promising researchers or awarding a Prize that recognises a long way to go to control whole career... The Foundation is also promoting cooperation among many diseases and to funding institutions as well as among research centres. promote healthier life styles. To develop an overall al, future-oriented vision on the best ways to Philanthropy has played a deliver philanthropic support in the field of medical scientific research, key role in major medical the Foundation relies on the knowledge of the recognized experts of discoveries, and continues the ‘Medical Scientific Research Advisory Committee’ and of the to be a vital complement ‘Cancer Research Advisory Committee’. to public investments in research and innovation" Once a year all the laureates are celebrated at a formal prize award Baron Peter Piot, Director, ceremony in the presence of H.R.H. Princess Astrid. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, Honorary President of In 2015 a total of more than 2,5 million euro in research funding was the King Baudouin Foundation awarded to 42 researchers in different fields of medical scientific research. 03 FUND ALINE ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE Jean-Pierre Brion Laboratory of Histology, Neuroanatomy & Neuropathology Erasme - ULB, Route de Lennik 808 – 1070 Brussels +32-(0)2-555 65 05 [email protected] 100.000 € Selection made in cooperation with the Stichting Alzheimer Onderzoek (SAO)-Fondation Recherche Alzheimer (FRA) “The understanding Propagation of tau pathology by different of the mechanisms human PHF-tau species: relationship with underlying the formation toxicity and phosphorylation and the propagation Neurofibrillary tangles are one of the key brain lesions of Alzheimer’s of tau pathology in the disease and other ‘tauopathies’. These lesions correspond to accu- brain will be critical for mulation in neurons of inclusions composed of an abnormal form of a the development of protein called « tau ». These lesions progress in the brain by spreading therapeutic approaches between brain areas connected between them and the memory and in Alzheimer’s disease cognitive deficits of patients are strongly correlated with the spreading of tau pathology. Tau proteins in Alzheimer’s disease became highly targeted at interfering with phosphorylated and aggregate progressively up to form abnormal this propagation” fibres. Abnormal tau seems to have the ability to pass from one cell to another cell and to recruit normal tau in the latter to form new inclusions. Our project aims to better understand the mechanisms of propagation of tau pathology and to identify the main abnormal forms of tau that are responsible for toxicity and spreading by using human abnormal tau proteins. Propagation of tau pathology by different human PHF-tau species: relationship with toxicity and phos- phorylation 05 FUND ALINE ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE Laurence Ris dept Neurosciences - UMons, Bât ‘Le Pentagone’ (Aile 1A), 20 place du Parc - 7000 Mons + 32 (0)65 37 35 70 [email protected] 100.000 € Selection made in cooperation with the Stichting Alzheimer Onderzoek (SAO)-Fondation Recherche Alzheimer (FRA). Project supported by the Fund A.B. managed by the King Baudouin Foundation for a complementary amount of 50.000 € “Beyond my immense Study of the relationship linking glucose curiosity about brain metabolism to Amyloid Protein Precursor functioning, I wish that my expression and processing research will help to improve Alzheimer’s disease is a brain disorder characterized by a progressive the quality of human life by loss of memory and intellectual abilities causing a deep impact on daily preserving brain health and life of patients but also of family caregivers. The initial causes of the mental faculties in young disease are still unknown and the current treatments which are able to and older people” improve the quality of life by slowing down the progression of dementia cannot prevent or stop the disease. The aim of our project is to study the role of one specific protein, namely the Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP), known to be involved in the disease but whose functions in the healthy brain are not well under- stood. Our hypothesis is that this protein is involved in the control of energy supply to the brain. Recent researches point indeed towards a possible link between altered brain glucose regulation and Alzheimer’s disease. We thus propose to analyse the functional links between glu- cose availability, APP expression and brain activity for a better under- standing of the origins of Alzheimer’s disease. Brain activity relies on multiple interactions between specialized cells (neurons and astrocytes) and is dependent on energy supply (glucose) from the blood vessels. Our hypothesis is that Amyloid Precursor Protein (APP) which is involved in Alzheimer’s plays an important role in the tight regulation of energy supply during brain activity 07 FUND A.B. ALZHEIMER’S DISEASE Sandra Duque VIB, Center for the Biology of Disease - KU Leuven Campus Gasthuisberg, Herestraat 49, bus 602 - 3000 Leuven [email protected] 50.000 € “I believe that gene Delivery of recombinant AAV9 encoding an therapy will play a big antibody against BACE1 to treat Alzheimer’s role in tomorrow’s disease medicine and I hope to The cause of Alzheimer’s disease is still not well understood. Current evi- be able to contribute dence suggests that the appearance of amyloid plaques (protein aggre- to its development for gates) containing amyloid beta peptide (Abeta) is central to disease patho- Alzheimer’s disease” logy. These amyloid plaques adversely affect the function of neurons in the brain, eventually leading to the cognitive decline characteristic of the disease. BACE1 (also known as beta secretase) is one of the enzymes responsible for generating Abeta, and it has recently emerged as a promising drug tar- get. One approach is to use antibodies specific to BACE1 to decrease its activity in the brain – thereby reducing the overall levels of Abeta produced. FUND A.B. However, antibody-based therapies for AD remain challenging, due to the problems involved in delivering antibodies across the blood-brain barrier in sufficient quantities to maintain an adequate therapeutic effect. ALZHEIMER’S Adeno-associated virus (AAV)-based vectors have been successfully used to deliver genetic material throughout the brain when administered in a single intravenous injection. In this project, therefore, we are developing and validating an AAV-based system that encodes an antibody targeting BACE1. DISEASE It is our hope that this system will lead to improvements in AD pathology, by providing long-term production of the BACE1 antibody at clinically relevant levels throughout the brain, over period of months to years. Mouse brain section showing GFP (green fluorescent protein) in neurons (red) of the hippocampus following a single injection of AAV vector into the cerebro- spinal fluid. Neurons infected with AAV appear yellow. Cell nuclei are in blue. 09 FUND A.B. AGEING Stéphane Baudry Laboratory of Applied Biology, Faculté des Sciences de la Motricité (FSM) Erasme – ULB, Route de Lennik 808, CP 640 – 1070 Brussels +32 (0)2 555 37 65 [email protected] 40.250 € “To better understand Balance, cognitive capacities and risk of falls in cognitive-motor interaction elderly adults in relation with clinical Alterations in balance control when patients with Alzheimer’s disease solutions” perform a cognitive task revealed an increased level of interference between motor and cognitive compared with healthy individuals of the same age. This greater interference in patients likely reflects their level of cognitive impairment, which has led some to suggest that the paradigm of dual-task as a clinical test to detect early cognitive and an increased risk of falling. The main objective of this project is to better understand the effects of ageing and cognitive