ÂÜÀòÂÒÂ×

Prof. Joris de Wit holds a Ph.D. in neuroscience from the VU University Amsterdam in The Netherlands, obtained in 2004. He split his postdoctoral training between Amsterdam with Dr. Matthijs Verhage (VU Amsterdam) from 2004 to 2006, and San Diego, the USA with Dr. Anirvan Ghosh (University of California San Diego) from 2006 to 2012. In 2013, de Wit started the Laboratory of Synapse Biology at the VIB/KU Leuven Center for Brain & Disease Research and became Associate Professor at KU Leuven. In 2019, he was promoted to Professor in the Neurosciences Department.

Work from his lab includes the discovery of a new sorting mechanism by which neurons regulate the protein composition of their cell surface and the identification of molecular adhesion codes that specify the properties of specific synapses. The discovery of a new role for the secreted amyloid precursor protein in modulating synaptic transmission, in close collaboration with the laboratory of Dr. Bart De Strooper, was published in Science in 2019 and forms the basis of one of the projects being pursued by Augustine The latest discoveries led to the co-crystallization of the GABABR1a Sushi1 domain, part of recent patent applications filing covering the use and method of screening of GABABR1a ligand. Joris de Wit is the recipient of an ERC Starting Grant and FWO Odysseus grant.