Drs S.A.S. Langie
Dr. Langie's overall research interest is to study early-life exposures to xenobiotic agents, specific dietary compounds and/or other environmental factors, and how these can influence a persons’ sensitivity and genome stability, plus predispose to pathological diseases later in life. Her experience in the field of genotoxicology and molecular epidemiology (>20 years) mainly involves the analysis of biomarkers such as DNA damage, DNA repair and DNA methylation, and linking to exposures and/or disease outcomes.
Sabine obtained her PhD at the former Department of Health Risk Analysis & Toxicology at Maastricht University, on the topic: “Nutritional modulation of DNA repair” (ISBN 978 90 5278 791 6). It comprised the full range of studies with cells in vitro, experimental animals as well as human volunteers, and contributed to the field of genetic toxicology since she adapted a modified comet assay for DNA repair phenotyping purposes.
From April 2009 till June 2012, she worked as a postdoctoral researcher at Newcastle University (UK) in the Centre for Brain Ageing and Vitality, focusing on the modulation of epigenetic modifications and DNA repair in the ageing brain in mice.
In 2012, she received an AXA postdoctoral fellowship to conduct research at VITO in Belgium; investigating the effect of early-life exposures on epigenetic marks that underlie the developmental origin of respiratory allergies. Receiving the Cefic-LRI Innovative Science Award in 2013 enabled her to broaden her research and analyze DNA methylation in saliva of respiratory allergic children participating in Flemish birth cohorts.
From 2015-2019, as FWO-VITO postdoctoral researcher (12L5216N, 1523817N), Sabine focused on the use of non-invasive biomatrixes in biomonitoring studies and the identification of (epigenetic)biomarkers to assess the risk to develop complex diseases. In parallel, through collaborations, she examined the role of genome instability in obesity.
From October 2017 till September 2020, she was appointed as a 10% guest professor at Hasselt University, teaching/coordinating the MSc course Experimental Design.
Since 2020, she returned to Maastricht University as lecturer. She became an assistant professor in 2022, and is currently establishing her research into the role of DNA repair and mitochondrial function in complex diseases (such as obesity, metabolic syndrome and cancer), as well as looking at the health effects of plant-based diet.
