Background

​I began my research during my undergraduate studies (2008) in the Enteric Neuroscience laboratory of Prof. Joel Bornstein at the University of Melbourne, Australia. I conducted ex vivo organ bath video imaging studies and found that the diarrhoea-causing agent, cholera toxin, can have acute effects on intestinal motility. With some hands-on experience and having learned that the intestine and its intrinsic Enteric Nervous System (ENS) can continue to function even after being removed from the rest of the body, this was instrumental in sparking my interest in the intricate workings of the complex enteric neurocircuitry.

 

I subsequently went on to complete my MSc (2012) and PhD (2017) in the same lab to study the enteric neural control of intestinal fluid secretion in physiology, and in pathophysiology, delving deeper into the effects of cholera toxin. To investigate the role of the ENS in cholera toxin-evoked hypersecretion, I used an in vivo mouse ileal loop model and here I gained invaluable experience in small rodent surgeries. 

 

Moving away from Australia (the land where everything tries to kill you, allegedly) to Belgium (the land of chocolate and beer) for a postdoc at KU Leuven, it only seemed appropriate that I also shift my focus from examining how the gut handles enterotoxins to nutrients. I led studies investigating how nutrients are detected in the small intestine and provided functional evidence that the ENS can distinguish between different nutrients, paving the way to better understanding how the gut responds to what we eat. 

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Adding to my previous experience with mouse surgeries, I have been expanding on this skillset and working on further developing intravital microscopy techniques tailored for gut imaging. These methodologies enable us to investigate the dynamics and plasticity of the ENS and their impact on gut function in health and in disease.   ​​