Kaat Desloovere

Kaat Desloovere is full professor at the KU Leuven and research manager of the Clinical Motion Analysis Laboratory of the University Hospitals of Leuven, in Belgium. She has been focusing her research on clinical motion analysis, mainly in children with cerebral palsy. Her research is built on close collaboration and solid integration of several medical, paramedical and engineering disciplines. The clear link to the clinical field is a unique aspect of her multidisciplinary research and creates a strong translational dimension. Her specific research ambition is to unravel the relation between clinical motion data (mainly gait) and underlying neuromuscular impairments. The current research pathways are strongly focused on the alterations in macroscopic and microscopic muscle structure, defined by medical imaging and analyses of micro-biopsy of muscles and on advanced analysis of muscle behavior using instrumented assessments (spasticity and strength assessment and gait analysis) in patients with neurological and neuromuscular diseases. She guides a multidisciplinary group of > 15 researchers (with technical as well as clinical backgrounds) and a clinical team of 5 to 8 co-workers at the Clinical Motion Analysis Laboratory. Several past and ongoing research projects resulted in a continuously growing scientific output.