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Dr. Sanne Verberk, Prof. Jerome Hendriks, and Prof. Gijs Kooij

How Lipids Could Hold a Key to MS Repair

Grant

€49,500 / 2 years
UHasselt & Amsterdam UMC

Support given by the Fund Léon and Miriam Velge, managed by the King Baudouin Foundation

We offer two summaries to allow everyone – patient, loved one, caregiver, or researcher – to understand the key issues of this research, each at their own level. 

Science is at its best when it is open to all.

For everyone – Summary in plain language

How Lipids Could Hold a Key to MS Repair
Progressive multiple sclerosis (MS) needs better treatments, as the central nervous system (CNS) struggles to repair itself.

This research focuses on how immune cells regulate fats (lipids), which influence inflammation and repair.

Using advanced techniques, scientists aim to guide these cells to support CNS repair, identifying new targets for improved MS therapies.

For specialists – Scientific summary

Targeting elongation of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) to promote CNS repair in MS
There is an unmet medical need for new effective treatments for progressive forms of MS, in which repair of the central nervous system (CNS) is often hampered.

There is growing evidence that in immune cells that play an important role in inflammation and repair processes in MS, regulation of lipid metabolism is closely associated to the inflammatory and metabolic phenotype of the cell.

In this project, we will study how we can deploy this regulation to steer the cells to promote CNS repair again.

For this, we will use innovative lipidomics techniques together with knockdown and overexpression methods to identify new therapeutic targets for the development of improved treatments for progressive MS.