Publications

Background Recent evidence highlights the epidemiological value of blood DNA methylation (DNAm) as surrogate biomarker for exposure to risk factors for non-communicable diseases (NCD). DNAm surrogate of exposures predicts diseases and longevity better than self-reported or measured exposures in many cases. Consequently, disease prediction models based on blood DNAm surrogates may outperform current state-of-the-art prediction […]

Self-organizing three-dimensional cellular models derived from human pluripotent stem cells or primary tissue have great potential to provide insights into how the human nervous system develops, what makes it unique and how disorders of the nervous system arise, progress and could be treated. Here, to facilitate progress and improve communication with the scientific community and […]

Cilia or eukaryotic flagella are microtubule-based organelles found across the eukaryotic tree of life. Their very high aspect ratio and crowded interior are unfavorable to diffusive transport of most components required for their assembly and maintenance. Instead, a system of intraflagellar transport (IFT) trains moves cargo rapidly up and down the cilium (Figure 1A).1, 2, 3 Anterograde IFT, from the cell body to the […]

Previous studies for cancer biomarker discovery based on pre-diagnostic blood DNA methylation profiles, either ignore the explicit modeling of the time to diagnosis (TTD) as in a survival analysis setting, or provide inconsistent results. This lack of consistency is likely due to the limitations of standard EWAS approaches, that model the effect of DNAm at […]

INTRODUCTION The evolutionary expansion of the neocortex and the concomitant increase in neuron production are considered to be a basis for the increase in cognitive abilities that occurred during human evolution. Endocast analyses reveal that the endocranial volume of modern humans and Neanderthals was similar, suggesting similar brain and neocortex size. But whether similar neocortex […]