Ph.D. Theses

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) is an essential tool in clinical diagnostics and research, offering non-invasive visualization of internal structures with exceptional soft-tissue contrast. Traditional MRI focuses on generating qualitative images optimized for contrast in regions of interest, aiming for tissue differentiation. [...]

Diffusion weighted magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) is a unique MRI modality to probe the diffusive molecular transport in biological tissue. Due to its noninvasiveness and its ability to investigate the living human brain at submillimeter scale, dMRI is frequently performed in clinical and biomedical research to study the brain’s complex microstructural architecture. [...]

Alzheimer's disease is the most common cause of dementia and is marked by progressive cognitive decline. Early dysfunction appears in the hippocampus and later involves the prefrontal cortex. [...]

Mutations in genes that control epigenetic gene expression, especially the machinery that controls Histone 3 lysine 4 (H3K4me) methylation, are over-represented in intellectual disability disorders. It is mediated by both lysine methyltransferases and demethylases. [...]

Histone modifications and gene expression are tightly regulated processes in the brain that has been shown to play crucial role from the beginning of brain development, learning-memory formation and aging. While brain comprises of numerous types of neurons and non-neuronal cells, this regulation is highly cell type specific. [...]

Synaptic plasticity is how neurons adapt to new stimuli and necessitates changes in synaptic weight. For these changes to be durable, local translation in neurites, and at pre- and post-synapses is required. [...]

Dementia is the most significant health challenge in modern times, currently affecting over 50 million people worldwide. The number of people afflicted with this disorder is on the rise and expected to double by 2025. [...]

AIMS AND BACKGROUND: Besides Alzheimer’s disease (AD), Vascular dementia (VD) caused by cerebral small vessel disease (CSVD) is one of the most common causes of dementia but differential diagnosis, especially the discrimination of VD and AD, is still difficult. Established imaging markers of VD (e.g. [...]

Abstract: This thesis covers a very broad range of bioinformatics methods ranging from the development of the analysis pipeline to the data integration and development of an expression atlas (database and web application development). In addition, an in silico method was developed to annotate genome with novel features, and predicting diseases based on the expression profiles. [...]

Of all neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer´s Disease is the most widespread dementia syndrome, exhibiting progressive memory loss and intellectual abilities. One of the pathological hallmarks of this disease is associated to the presence of abundant intracellular deposits of the Tau protein. [...]