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The Vesalius Research Center (VRC) has focused since 15 years its research interests on unraveling the molecular basis of angiogenesis (i.e. the formation of blood vessels) and translating these genetic insights in therapeutic concepts – with the ultimate aspiration to develop novel treatments. Therefore, the VRC uses interdisciplinary functional genomic and genetic research strategies, from the bench to the bedside, and back again. Clinical cancer trials with antibodies against PlGF, a disease-specific angiogenic factor with unmatched safety profile, will start before the end of 2007 in the K.U.Leuven University Hospital.
More recently, the VRC research branched out into a new field, studying an unsuspected link between blood vessels and nerves. This neuro-vascular link, originally discovered 500 years ago by the Belgian anatomist and previous KULeuven alumnus Andreas Vesalius (he recognized the parallel anatomic patterns of vessels and nerves) is of medical relevance for health and disease. Indeed, mice and humans with low levels of the key angiogenic factor VEGF develop the motoneuron degenerative disorder ALS, genetic findings that prompted VRC scientists to show that VEGF treatment prolongs the survival of rodent models of ALS. Clinical VEGF trials for the treatment of ALS are planned to initiate within the next coming months in the K.U.Leuven University Hospital.
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