Bart De Strooper, M.D., Ph.D.

Professor and VIB Researcher at KU Leuven, Belgium and University College London

 


Bart De Strooper is a professor of molecular medicine at the University of Leuven and University College London. He leads research groups at the VIB Centre for Brain and Disease research in Leuven, Belgium,  and at the Crick Institute in London.

Bart De Strooper’s scientific work is focused on the understanding of the fundamental mechanisms that underlie Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. His major finding is the identification of gamma-secretase and its role in the proteolysis of the amyloid precursor protein and in Notch signaling, for which he received the Brain Prize 2018 together with Hardy, Goedert and Haass. Recently he has reoriented his work to the understanding of the cellular phase of Alzheimer’s disease. His aim is to understand the mechanisms of resilience that make that some people survive into very old age with the biochemical signs of Alzheimer’s Disease but without the symptoms of dementia.

He received his M.D. in 1985 and Ph.D. in 1991 from KU Leuven. He did a postdoc in the European Molecular Biology Laboratory (EMBL) in Heidelberg, Germany, in the laboratory of Carlos Dotti. Apart from the Brain Prize, Bart De Strooper received the Potamkin Award of the American Academy of Neurology in 2002, the 2003 Alois Alzheimer Award of the Deutscher Gesellschaft für Gerontopsychiatrie und psychotherapie, the Joseph Maisin Prize in 2005 for fundamental biomedical sciences and the 2008 Metlife Foundation Award for medical research among other prizes. He is Commander in the Order of Leopold (Belgian national honorary order), an elected EMBO member (European Molecular Biology Organisation) and an elected member of the Academy of Medical Sciences, UK.

He has published close to 400 papers with an h-index of 121 and is recognized as a highly cited researcher in 2018, 2019 and 2020 (Clarivate, Web of Science Group).   Expertscape considers him World Expert in Alzheimer’s disease (no 8 worldwide), Presenilins (no1 worldwide) and Amyloid beta-Peptides (no 4 worldwide).

 

To learn more, visit the De Strooper’s lab social media page.

Related Research:

Funded Research

These projects were made possible from Cure Alzheimer's Fund support.

Selected Publications

These published papers resulted from Cure Alzheimer’s Fund support.

McDade, E., Voytyuk, I., Aisen, P., Bateman, R. J., Carrillo, M. C., De Strooper, B., Haass, C., Reiman, E. M., Sperling, R., Tariot, P. N., Yan, R., Masters, C. L., Vassar, R., & Lichtenthaler, S. F. The case for low-level BACE1 inhibition for the prevention of Alzheimer disease, Nature Reviews Neurology, September 21, 2021, Read More

Benitez, D. P., Jiang, S., Wood, J., Wang, R., Hall, C. M., Peerboom, C., Wong, N., Stringer, K. M., Vitanova, K. S., Smith, V. C., Joshi, D., Saito, T., Saido, T. C., Hardy, J., Hanrieder, J., De Strooper, B., Salih, D. A., Tripathi, T., Edwards, F. A., & Cummings, D. M. Knock-in models related to Alzheimer’s disease: synaptic transmission, plaques and the role of microglia, Molecular Neurodegeneration, July 15, 2021, Read More

Paolicelli, R. C., Sierra, A., Stevens, B., et al. Microglia states and nomenclature: A field at its crossroads, Neuron, November 2, 2022, Read More

Wouters, Y., Jaspers, T., De Strooper, B., & Dewilde, M. Identification and in vivo characterization of a brain-penetrating nanobody, Fluids and Barriers of the CNS, October 14, 2020, Read More

Rué, L., Jaspers, T., Degors, I. M. S., Noppen, S., Schols, D., De Strooper, B., & Dewilde, M. Novel Human/Non-Human Primate Cross-Reactive Anti-Transferrin Receptor Nanobodies for Brain Delivery of Biologics, Pharmaceutics, June 16, 2023, Read More

Schoonaert, L., Rué, L., Roucourt, B., Timmers, M., Little, S., Chávez-Gutiérrez, L., Dewilde, M., Joyce, P., Curnock, A., Weber, P., Haustraete, J., Hassanzadeh-Ghassabeh, G., De Strooper, B., Van Den Bosch, L., Van Damme, P., Lemmens, R., & Robberecht, W. Identification and characterization of nanobodies targeting the EphA4 receptor, Journal of Biological Chemistry, July 7, 2017, Read More

Wouters, Y., Jaspers, T., Rué, L., Serneels, L., De Strooper, B., & Dewilde, M. VHHs as tools for therapeutic protein delivery to the central nervous system, Fluids and Barriers of the CNS, October 3, 2022, Read More