Sandrine Da Cruz is Group Leader, head of the Laboratory of Neurophysiology in Neurodegenerative Disorders at the VIB-KU Leuven Center for Neuroscience and Professor in the Department of Neurosciences of KU Leuven in Belgium since January 2020.

Her research focuses on molecular mechanisms and therapy development for Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD) using mouse models as well as in vitro cellular models including patient-induced pluripotent stem cells. Her lab investigates two main questions: (1) how de-mixing/aggregation of RNA binding proteins TDP-43 and FUS causes toxicity, (2) what causes the early demise of neuromuscular junctions (NMJs) in ALS by studying the role of local axonal translation in the maintenance and loss of axons and NMJs using a combination of spatial omics, imaging approaches and cellular functional systems.

Sandrine graduated with distinction in Biochemistry from the University of Grenoble in France. She obtained her PhD in 2005 on mitochondrial biology at the University of Geneva and then for her postdoctoral work, joined the laboratory of Don Cleveland at the University of California San Diego where she started investigating mechanisms of inherited ALS using mouse genetics. In 2013 she transitioned as research scientist at the Ludwig Institute - San Diego Branch, and in 2016 she was appointed Assistant Investigator and head of the Laboratory of Neurobiology. She was recipient of the Milton Safenowitz fellowship from the ALS Association, the Packard Center as well as the Frick Foundation for ALS research, and more recently received the 2023 Drs Ayeez and Shelena Lalji & Family Award for Innovative Healing – for the development of a therapy targeting FUS using antisense oligonucleotides, currently in clinical trial to treat an inherited form of ALS, as well as the 2025 Radala for ALS Research award.