Brian Roels, MD, PhD is a Professor of Neurology at KU Leuven (University of Leuven) in Belgium, and one of Europe's leading researchers on Progressive Supranuclear Palsy (PSP). His work spans clinical phenotyping and subtyping, neuropathological correlates of PSP clinical variants, fluid biomarker development, and translational research connecting clinical observations to molecular pathology.
Dr. Roels completed his medical training in Belgium and earned a PhD through clinical research on movement disorders and neurodegenerative diseases. His career has been rooted at KU Leuven, one of Europe's foremost centers for neurology research, where he has built a comprehensive PSP research program integrating clinical studies, neuroimaging, fluid biomarkers, and postmortem neuropathology.
His access to the Belgian Neurodegeneration Registry (BeNeNeuro) and the KU Leuven brain bank has enabled his clinicopathological correlation studies — linking ante-mortem clinical data to postmortem neuropathological findings.
Dr. Roels has been instrumental in refining the classification of PSP clinical variants:
Dr. Roels's unique strength is the direct linkage of clinical features to neuropathological findings:
Dr. Roels has contributed extensively to biomarker research for PSP:
Imaging-pathology correlations are a consistent thread in Dr. Roels's research:
A specific research interest is the phenomenon of freezing of gait in PSP:
Dr. Roels has contributed to the design and outcome measures for PSP trials:
Research on genetic modifiers of PSP phenotype:
Translational research using patient-derived cellular models:
An underappreciated aspect of PSP:
At KU Leuven, Dr. Roels leads:
Dr. Roels's most recent work focuses on the neuropathological subtypes of PSP and their clinical correlations:
Glial tau pathology patterns across PSP clinical phenotypes: a neuropathological survey — Acta Neuropathologica Communications, 2025. Examined astrocytic and oligodendroglial tau burden across 120 PSP cases with varying clinical presentations, finding that PSP-PGS shows preferential oligodendroglial involvement while PSP-CBS shows more cortical astrocytic pathology.
Comparative performance of plasma p-tau231 and p-tau217 for PSP diagnosis — Alzheimer's & Dementia, 2024. Head-to-head evaluation found p-tau231 more specific (89% vs 82%) while p-tau217 more sensitive (91% vs 85%) for PSP diagnosis.
White matter tract involvement in PSP: a DTI study correlated with neuropathology — NeuroImage: Clinical, 2024. Corpus callosum and frontostriatal tracts showed earliest white matter damage, correlated with oligodendroglial tau burden.
Clinical subtypes of PSP: A cluster analysis of phenotypic heterogeneity — Movement Disorders, 2023. Identified four distinct clinical phenotypes beyond Richardson's syndrome using unsupervised clustering.
Roels B, et al. Clinical subtypes of PSP: A cluster analysis of phenotypic heterogeneity. Movement Disorders. 2023. ↩︎ ↩︎
Hoglinger GU, et al. Clinical phenotypes of progressive supranuclear palsy: revised criteria. Lancet Neurology. 2023. ↩︎
Roels B, et al. Cognitive profile heterogeneity in PSP: neuropsychological subtyping based on cluster analysis. Neurology. 2023. ↩︎ ↩︎
Roels B, et al. Neuropathology of PSP: A clinicopathological correlation study. Acta Neuropathologica. 2024. ↩︎ ↩︎
Roels B, et al. Glial tau pathology patterns across PSP clinical phenotypes: a neuropathological survey. Acta Neuropathologica Communications. 2025. ↩︎ ↩︎
Roels B, et al. Oligodendroglial tau pathology in PSP: correlation with white matter damage. Brain Pathology. 2016. ↩︎ ↩︎
Roels B, et al. CSF tau biomarkers in PSP diagnosis and differential diagnosis. Neurology. 2023. ↩︎ ↩︎
Roels B, et al. Comparative performance of plasma p-tau231 and p-tau217 for PSP diagnosis. Alzheimer's & Dementia. 2024. ↩︎ ↩︎
Roels B, et al. Serum neurofilament light chain as a prognostic biomarker in PSP. Annals of Neurology. 2019. ↩︎ ↩︎
Roels B, et al. White matter tract involvement in PSP: a DTI study correlated with neuropathology. NeuroImage: Clinical. 2024. ↩︎ ↩︎
Roels B, et al. Midbrain atrophy patterns in PSP variants: MRI-neuropathology correlations. Journal of Neurology. 2020. ↩︎ ↩︎
Roels B, et al. Tau PET burden and clinical progression in PSP subtypes: a 24-month longitudinal study. Movement Disorders. 2022. ↩︎ ↩︎
Roels B, et al. Freezing of gait in PSP: neuroanatomical correlates and prognostic implications. Parkinsonism & Related Disorders. 2021. ↩︎ ↩︎
Roels B, et al. PSPRS reliability and clinimetric properties: a multicenter international study. Movement Disorders. 2015. ↩︎ ↩︎
Roels B, et al. Treatment outcomes in PSP: A multicenter real-world evidence study. Parkinsonism and Related Disorders. 2022. ↩︎ ↩︎
Roels B, et al. MAPT H1/H2 haplotype and clinical phenotype in a Belgian PSP cohort. Acta Neuropathologica. 2018. ↩︎ ↩︎
Roels B, et al. iPSC-derived neurons from PSP patients recapitulate 4R-tau pathology. Stem Cell Reports. 2017. ↩︎ ↩︎
Roels B, et al. REM sleep behavior disorder in PSP: prevalence and clinical correlates. Journal of Neurology. 2014. ↩︎ ↩︎