Kaas en Wijn Avond met studenten, assistenten en proffen
Interviews afgenomen met biologen tijdens de jaarlijkse kaas - en wijnavond op de Vrije Universiteit Brussel, VUB.
Vragen: waarom biologie studeren, zijn de studies wat je er van verwacht had, waarom de VUB...
Recent Nieuws
Micheline Volders is Vice-President of the International Association of Environmental Mutagen Societies
Following her chairmanship of the European Environmental Mutagen Society (EEMS), Micheline Volders from the laboratory for cellular genetics of the Biology Department has recently been elected Vice-President of the International Association of Environmental Mutagen Societies (IAMS) for a period of four years.
Sandrine Godefroid is the 2009 Winner of the Jean Lebrun Fund Prize
Dr. Sandrine Godefroid was named as the 2009 Winner of the Jean Lebrun Fund Prize for the period 2006-2008. The Jean Lebrun Fund awards a tri-annual prize for original scientific work in ecology and biogeography. During this period, Sandrine Godefroid of the Laboratory for General Botany and Nature Management (APNA) at the Sciences and Bio-Engineering Sciences Faculty carried out research into how plant species respond to certain environmental factors, the identification of indicators for valuable eco-systems, and the sustainable management of forests. The formal presentation of the prize took place during the public meeting of the Science Department of the Royal Belgian Academy on Saturday, December 19th, 2009.
The Amphibian Evolution Lab is looking for two motivated PhD-students to work on the evolution of pheromones in amphibians.
This research fits in the framework of the project TAPAS (Tracing Antimicrobial peptides and Pheromones in the Amphibian Skin), awarded by the European Research Council.
Applicant are invited to send their CV and motivation by August 15th 2009 to Prof. Franky Bossuyt: fbossuyt@vub.ac.be
New insights on the unique fauna of the Indian Subcontinent
The presence of endemic plants and animals on India and Sri Lanka has been typically attributed to the subcontinent's geological history of long-term isolation. The Amphibian Evolution Lab of Prof. Franky Bossuyt has been at the forefront of demonstrating that this geological isolation resulted in the origin and evolution of unique frog families. But this is not the whole story, it now seems. In a recent paper published in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology, Ines Van Bocxlaer and co-authors report on an extensive DNA-study revealing a previously unrecognized diversity of toads unique to the Indian subcontinent. DNA-analyses indicate that these amphibians became isolated between 25 and 20 million years ago, which is long after the geological isolation of India. So why did they remain restricted to the subcontinent? Climate reconstructions indicate that this period coincides with the origin of the monsoon in the forested mountains of India and an associated dry climate outside these areas. Tropically adapted toads that originated in these mountains thus became trapped and could no longer disperse over the dry and hot planes that surround these forests. This study is the first to show that the exceptional fauna and flora of the Indian Subcontinent is not only the result of geological isolation, but also of more recent invasion, radiation and climatic isolation of animal groups in the tropical forests of India.
Elisabeth Robert wint ATR-award Best Presentation op TRACE Conference
Op de TRACE Conference 2009 heeft Elisabeth Robert van de onderzoeksgroep Algemene Plantkunde en Natuurbeheer (Biologie) de ‘ATR-award Best Presentation’ gewonnen met haar presentatie ‘Successive cambia in three dimensions: the mangrove Avicennia inside’. De prijs wordt jaarlijks uitgereikt op het TRACE-congres aan de student met de beste mondelinge voordracht.
Een korte samenvatting van de presentatie vindt u in dit document. Meer informatie over ATR kan u vinden op: http://www.tree-ring.org/
ATR = Association for Tree-Ring-Research
TRACE = Tree Rings in Archaeology, Climatology and Ecology
Griet Neukermans has won the prize for the best poster at the Youth Contact Day of the Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee
Griet Neukermans, marine researcher at the Management Unit of the North Sea Mathematical Models (MUMM) and voluntary contributor to the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, recently won the prize for the best poster at the Youth Contact Day of the Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee (VLIZ) in Bruges on the 6th March.
Elisabeth Robert wint VLIZ Thesis Award voor Marine Sciences
Elk jaar kent het Vlaams Instituut voor de Zee (VLIZ) een award toe aan twee masterthesissen. Zowel fundamenteel als toegepast onderzoek in alle disciplines van Marine Sciences komt hiervoor in aanmerking. Dit jaar won Elisabeth Robert van de vakgroep Algemene Plantkunde en Natuurbeheer (www.vub.ac.be/APNA) een van de twee awards voor haar thesis ‘Hydraulische architectuur van Avicennia marina langsheen een ecologische gradiënt in Gazi Bay, Kenia.’
Meer informatie over de VLIZ award is te vinden op de website van de VLIZ. In dit document kan u meer informatie over het thesisonderwerp van Elisabeth terugvinden.
Mrs HENDRICKX Marijke
defended her thesis on friday 20 February 2009 to obtain the title of Doctor
in Sciences
Title: Neural induction and neural patterning in mouse ES cells
Congratulations: "Greatest Distinction"
This research was carried out
of in the laboratory for Cell
Genetics (CEGE) at the VUB - Promoter: Prof. Dr. L. Leyns
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)
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
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
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.
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.
The presence of endemic plants and animals on India and Sri Lanka has been typically attributed to the subcontinent's geological history of long-term isolation. The Amphibian Evolution Lab of Prof. Franky Bossuyt has been at the forefront of demonstrating that this geological isolation resulted in the origin and evolution of unique frog families. But this is not the whole story, it now seems. In a recent paper published in the journal BMC Evolutionary Biology, Ines Van Bocxlaer and co-authors report on an extensive DNA-study revealing a previously unrecognized diversity of toads unique to the Indian subcontinent. DNA-analyses indicate that these amphibians became isolated between 25 and 20 million years ago, which is long after the geological isolation of India. So why did they remain restricted to the subcontinent? Climate reconstructions indicate that this period coincides with the origin of the monsoon in the forested mountains of India and an associated dry climate outside these areas. Tropically adapted toads that originated in these mountains thus became trapped and could no longer disperse over the dry and hot planes that surround these forests. This study is the first to show that the exceptional fauna and flora of the Indian Subcontinent is not only the result of geological isolation, but also of more recent invasion, radiation and climatic isolation of animal groups in the tropical forests of India.
Op de 
Een korte samenvatting van de presentatie vindt u in dit 
Griet Neukermans, marine researcher at the Management Unit of the North Sea Mathematical Models (MUMM) and voluntary contributor to the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, recently won the prize for the best poster at the 
Congratulations: "Great Distinction"
Eind september won Kim Vande Loock, doctoraatsstudent biologie in het labo cellulaire genetica, een poster award in de 38ste jaarlijkse meeting van de 