Ellen Vercalsteren

I am a postdoctoral researcher in the NeuroCardiometabol group. The focus of my research lies on the neurological problems connected with diabetes, specifically about stroke. Diabetes not only doubles stroke risk, it also significantly impairs stroke outcome and currently there are no treatments available. Both diabetes and stroke prevalence will only increase further and considering the strong connection between both pathologies, I believe there is a dire need for an interdisciplinary approach to solve this important clinical problem. Currently, our group is using a pre-clinical model to investigate to identify how diabetes impairs stroke outcome and to find effective therapeutic strategies to improve outcome after stroke in diabetes.

Research highlights:

• We have shown that a pre-stroke diet-induced weight loss improve post-stroke recovery in diabetic mice, only if diabetic features (hyperglycemia and insulin resistance) are completely normalized prior to stroke (PMID: 
• 34937562).
• Pre-stroke insulin resistance, even without concomitant obesity and hyperglycemia, impairs stroke outcome, an effect that can be reverted by a pre-stroke normalization of IR (PMID: 
• 36835405).
• Diabetes impairs efficient brain vascularization, a mechanism that is pivotal for efficient stroke recovery (PMID: 
• 36448982). This impairment can be counteracted by anti-diabetic drugs.
• an intervention with sodium-glucose cotransporter-2 inhibitors (SGLT2i), initiated 3 days after stroke, efficiently improves stroke outcome in diabetic mice (PMID: 
• 38558509).

2021 – present: postdoctoral researcher at the Department of Clinical Science and Education (KI-SÖS), Södersjukhuset

2020: PhD in Biomedical Sciences, KU Leuven, Belgium

2016: Master in Biomedical Sciences KU Leuven, Belgium

2014: Bachelor in Biomedical Sciences, KU Leuven, Belgium