The aetiology of illness is multifactorial, where a complex combination of environmental and genetic factors seem to play a determinant role. Investigating the implication of genetic factors in the risk assessment of illness can be beneficial for the improvement of preventive public health strategies and may open new landscapes for more effective treatment (personalised medicine) and reduced complications. Therefore, our research interest does not only focus on the diagnosis and prevention of diseases but it goes beyond to elaborate therapeutic strategies pioneered by stem cell research.
In the department of medical Laboratory Technology, we are currently working on identifying genetic variations implicated in the aetiology of human diseases causing illness. Thus, we get to undergo genotype - phenotype associations in order to identify genetic variants being implicated in human complex and Mendelian diseases. To do so, we use different approaches in genetics, bioinformatics and cellular biology. Since many current studies are showing that a significant proportion of patients do not appear to have genetic variations in known genes, we plan to pursue this work with expansion to generation sequencing (NGS) as a novel approach to rapidly identify novel gene defects. In the goal of undergoing personalized medicine and individualized drug selection, we are currently studying the influence of genotype on pharmacology leading to improved safety, efficacy and sustainability.
Furthermore, we intend to establish stem cell lines from affected subjects with known genetic defects and unaffected relatives to contribute to the validation of novel genetic pathways. We, at the department of physical therapy, are concerned with the treatment of neuro-musculoskeletal disorders with various modalities. Different studies were done in this domain and these studies included identification and application of interventions that may affect muscle performance, joint mobility, balance, and gait in different age intervals. The department is striving to tackle more specific areas possibly those related to special populations and/or investigating the effects and suitableness of specific modalities used in a clinical setting.
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