Message from our Directors
Understanding the brain, curing disease
At the Center for Brain & Disease Research we believe that understanding how our brain is shaped to control thought and behavior—and how it loses these abilities in disease—is one of the most urgent and pressing challenges of this century. It is a valiant goal, but our teams are making immense progress taking multidisciplinary approaches to unlock the secrets of the brain and mind.
We explore how the brain develops, ages and performs, we study its remarkable resilience but also how it falls to dementia, psychiatric disability and movement disorders. Our different research groups are bridging disciplines, from artificial intelligence, microelectronics and nanoscience, to microfluidics, single cell analysis and chimeric animal models.
The journey doesn’t stop there. Through partnerships across the globe, we disseminate our ideas and our findings, securing important new investments. Located at Europe’s number one innovative university, KU Leuven, our Center is among the most exciting locations worldwide to pursue original ideas. We have created a biotech ecosystem including several new startups and millions in investments in the past few years. This shows that the strongest basic science propels discovery and innovation.
A hub for research talent
To achieve our goals, we invite the best minds to pursue their ideas with us. Diverse talents, who share their expertise, creativity and drive. If you share our mission, please refer to the ample opportunities, or reach out spontaneously to one of our groups.
We work hard every day to create a collaborative and inclusive environment, where everyone can bring their best ideas and work to the table. Through excellent research facilities, and by offering a wide array of opportunities for training and professional development, both research and researchers thrive.
When communities come together, extraordinary things are possible. While the past years have been challenging, flexibility, resilience and broad care and support have been the differentiating factors in our day-to-day activities, not only in our labs, but also in our expertise units. We look forward to what's in store for the next months and years.
Patrik Verstreken, Hilde Govaert & Joris de Wit