About us

The VIB-KU Leuven Center for Neuroscience is part of the VIB Life Sciences Institute and is embedded within the University of Leuven, which ranks among the world’s top 50 universities. At our Center, researchers study the cellular mechanisms of health and disease in the central nervous system.

Dr. Esther Klingler established her laboratory in 2023 at the VIB–KU Leuven Center for Neuroscience. Her group investigates how amygdala neurons differentiate, assemble into functional circuits, and support behavior in both normal and disease conditions.

The lab focuses on how amygdala neurons acquire their fate and establish precise connectivity with target brain regions during development, and how these processes are altered by stress and pathology. To address these questions, the team combines state-of-the-art approaches including single-cell and spatial transcriptomics, circuit tracing and connectomics, and automated behavioral an...