It remains one of the defining discoveries in modern neurodegeneration research, and a powerful example of how genetics can open new paths toward mechanisms and therapy.
Congratulations, Rosa!
By uncovering the mutation behind the long-sought chromosome 9 linkage, the work provided a unifying explanation for many familial cases and a surprising proportion of apparently sporadic ones.
The identification of the C9orf72 repeat expansion by Rosa Rademakers and her team, at the time at @mayoclinic.org, marked a major breakthrough in the genetics of frontotemporal dementia and ALS.
We couldn’t be more proud of our director, Rosa Rademakers, who received the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences last night in LA. 🤩
📸 Lester Cohen / Getty Images for Breakthrough Prize
Big congratulations to Emanuela Pasciuto on receiving the 2026 Young Researcher Award from Stop Alzheimer / Stichting Alzheimer Onderzoek. 🙌 🎉
The award recognizes her research on microglia–T cell interactions in Alzheimer’s disease and comes with an additional €50,000 in support of this work.
Thrilled to see our work from the past years finally published! We found a novel repeat expansion in the GOLGA8A gene in 60% of the aFTLD-U patients, a rare subtype of frontotemporal dementia. Huge thanks to all collaborators and patients for making this possible.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Big congrats to Albena Jordanova 🎉 on receiving the Generet Prize for Rare Diseases and €1,000,000 to accelerate research into Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT). @jordanovalab.bsky.social
blog.vib.be/1-million-euro-for-resea...
#rarediseaseday
Double whopper for Dimitra Sokolova from the @pasciutolab.bsky.social:
EMBO Postdoctoral Fellowship +
Queen Elisabeth Medical Foundation Young Researcher Award 🙌
blog.vib.be/dimitra-sokolova-studies...
Congratulations to Bob Asselbergh, who was named runner-up in the Autumn round of the Four Seasons of the Invisible imaging contest hosted by Euro-BioImaging! 🏆
www.eurobioimaging.eu/news/congratulations-to-...
Parkinson’s may originate in the enteric nervous system, via muscularis macrophages containing misfolded α-synuclein that develop endolysosomal dysfunction & promote T cell expand/traffic to brain
www.nature.com/articles/s41... @nature.com @soyonhonglab.bsky.social @ucl.ac.uk @cmn-vib.bsky.social
In 2025, eight new genes were linked to peripheral neuropathy, three of these discoveries derive from work done right here in Antwerp, at the @jordanovalab.bsky.social
Postdoc Ayşe Candayan unpacks why collaboration (more than any single technology) helped crack tough cases.
http://prez.ly/825d
This work builds on Seppe’s postdoc research at @ucl.ac.uk / @ukdri.ac.uk , and we’re excited for the next discoveries from his own lab at VIB-UAntwerp Center for Molecular Neurology (CMN), focusing on neuroimmunology in neurodegeneration. @viblifesciences.bsky.social @uantwerpen.be
The study shows how intestinal macrophages can modulate synucleinopathy along the gut-brain axis, strengthening the growing view that the gut plays an important role in the earliest stages of Parkinson’s disease.
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Fantastic to see this seminal work by Sebastiaan De Schepper published in Nature today. 👏
https://blog.vib.be/
The 1000 Healthy elderly study is on a roll.
With well over 200 re-inclusions we did well in 2025. 🙌
A big thank you to our participants! 🙏
New year, new job?
The Mancuso lab is looking for a scientist/lab technician to provide hands on support with mouse experiments, molecular biology and cell culture.
👉 jobs.vib.be/j/129010/scientistlab-te...
Big news this week for Alzheimer research in Flanders! 📣
The Flemish government invests €16M to validate blood biomarkers for the early detection of AD. Kristel Sleegers will play a leading role in this large-scale collaboration, alongside experts from different Flemish universities and hospitals.
Congrats to Sarah Weckhuysen and her team: the VALUEKCNQ consortium has been funded through ERDERA’s first Joint Transnational Call! 🎉
The project focuses on KCNQ-related developmental and epileptic encephalopathies, advancing preclinical work toward future therapeutic options.
At CMN Day last Monday, we revealed the winners of the CMN Scientific Image Contest 2025. 🤩
🏆 Explosions in the sky, by Heidi Denton
🏆 Playing Mikado, by Simona Manzella
🏆 It is a kittycat, by Cindy Keller
Huge congratulations to Rosa Rademakers on receiving the Sean M. Healey International Prize for Innovation in ALS, together with Nancy Bonini (UPenn), Aaron Gitler (Stanford), and Bryan Traynor (NIH/NIA). 🎉
Big VIB Technologies delegation in Antwerp today to join for the one and only #CMNday2025. 🙌|
#VIBtechies @cmn-vib.bsky.social
Kicking off #CMNday2025 with technology deep dives and updates from the Rademakers and @mancusorenzo.bsky.social labs, by Elise Coopman and Maxim van Hoek. 🚀
@vibtechnologies.bsky.social @viblifesciences.bsky.social
Another local one in our #CMNconsortia series:
We're part of µNEURO, a UAntwerp Research Centre of Excellence uniting neuropathology, genomics, and quantitative multimodal imaging to uncover pathogenic mechanisms in neurodevelopmental and neurodegenerative disorders.
https://tinyurl.com/24vhk8v6
C9orf72 mutations impair immune activation in ALS, highlighting key differences in the cellular and molecular pathways underlying sporadic and genetics forms of the disease
@mancusorenzo.bsky.social @c9laura72.bsky.social @baukje-bij.bsky.social @cmn-vib.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Last Friday, we shared our research with 1st year Master's students at @uantwerpen.be during the Research Day! We loved their genuine interest and look forward to welcoming several of them to our lab next year.
Great to see Ph.D. students Kato and Ella share their love for science! 🧪
New paper alert! 🚨
The Jordanova lab contributed to a major international study uncovering the genetic cause of a childhood-onset, motor-predominant neuropathy.
The team identified one of the 20 families as part of this multicenter collaboration.
📄 https://www.jci.org/articles/view/184474
One of the newest consortia we are part of is TRANSGEN.
In this consortium, CMN PIs team up colleagues from the UZA-UAntwerp Center of Medical Genetics to advance the translation of genomic and epigenomic insights into novel biomarkers and innovative therapies.
#CMNcohorts #CMNconsortia
Today, the 2nd European CMT Specialist Conference kicks off, right here in Antwerp! 🎉
The Jordanova lab is well represented with Ayşe Candayan is giving a talk and Akram Khanghahi and Alexandra Ekshteyn are presenting posters
www.uantwerpen.be/en/conferences/2nd-european-cmt-specialist-conference/
