Eva D'haene
Who is Eva?
Eva was a postdoc in the FunGen lab since 2021 (shared supervision with prof. Elfride De Baere). Currently, she is pursuing a senior postdoc at Nordic EMBL, Institute for Molecular Medicine Finland at the University of Helsinki.
She obtained her PhD in 2021, working with prof. Sarah Vergult on the interpretation of non-coding structural variation in neurodevelopmental disorders.
Eva was awarded an FWO junior postdoctoral fellowship. Her projects involved mapping 3D genomes and regulatory landscapes in the human retina (with prof. Elfride De Baere) and interpreting the impact of pathogenic structural variation in patients with retinal and developmental disorders. Additionally, she was also involved in teaching and supervision of PhD students.
Eva has built great expertise in regulatory genomics, in particular 3D genome mapping technologies (4C, UMI-4C, Hi-C, Pore-C), enhancer validation assays and (epi)genomic data analysis.
In her spare time, she loves to travel, drink coffee, ride her bike and climb rocks.
Michael Vaughan
Who is Michael?
Mike was a postdoc in the FunGen lab since February 2023. He carried out his PhD studies in the University College Cork Department of Physiology. His research was funded by a Lilly Doctoral Scholarship and focused on using 3D human neuronal culture for the study of Alzheimer’s disease.
His postdoc project looked at the multiparametric characterisation of neurodevelopmental disorders using human neural organoids. Working within both the FunGen lab and the team of Prof. Ruslan Dmitriev, Mike’s research focused on the integration of complex cell culture, advanced imaging, and “Big Data” methodologies for experimental pipeline design.
When not working in the lab Mike is often surfing, playing music, or trying to build something.
Mike was funded on a Ghent University Special Research Fund (BOF) project. In addition to this project, he was also involved in training and supervision of Msc & PhD students, as well as scouting out new techniques to bring back to Gent.
Eva Jacobs
Who is Eva?
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María del Rocío Pérez Baca
Who is Rocío?
Rocío was a PhD student in the FunGen lab since December 2019. Her project involved the unravelling of the function of two transcription factors, ZFHX3 and ZFHX4, in neuronal development and assess how dysfunction can lead to disease.
To better understand how loss of function can lead to disease, she used CRISPR-Cas9 genome engineering and overexpression to study the molecular, morphological, and electrophysiological effects of aberrant proteins. She also worked with in vivo models, Drosophila melanogaster and Danio rerio, to study the phenotypical effects of ZFHX3 and ZFHX4 aberrations.
In addition to working in the lab, she highly values specialized skills, therefore she has completed the postgraduate course Human Genetics from the Belgian Society of Human Genetics.
She has also improved her transferable skills with the following courses: “Effective Scientific Communication”, “Presentation Skills”, “Time management” and “Initiation GIMP and Inkscape” courses. Most of these courses were put into practice during selected talks concerning the ZFHX3 project at the joint meeting BeSHG/NVHG in Bruges on the 21st April 2022 and the international ESHG meeting in Vienna (Austria) on the 11th of June 2022. She has also mentored different master students during her PhD.
In her spare time, Rocío likes to go for a run, enjoys hanging out with her friends, and travel around the world.
Rocío has been awarded a Marguerite-Marie Delacroix fellowship to work on these exciting projects.
Lies Vantomme
Who is Lies?
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The people powering FunGen Lab
Our team consists of a young and enthusiastic team of researchers who strive to advance the field in understanding the genetic causes of neurodevelopmental disorders.
