news 2023

How are our cells able to detect tiny asperities in their support, the extracellular matrix, which bind them together - By what mechanism - Do they manage to modify their behavior in response to these small reliefs - These are the questions to which a team of cell biology researchers from UNamur and UCLouvain have provided major answers, which have just been published in the prestigious scientific journal Science Advances.

In a breakthrough discovery, scientists from VIB-VUB Center for Structural Biology unraveled the mysteries of SlyB, a tiny but mighty protein found in the outer membrane of certain bacteria. When bacteria face stress, SlyB acts as a crucial guardian to protect the bacterial cell from dying. This discovery not only deepens our understanding of bacterial survival mechanisms but also paves the way for potential applications in antimicrobial research.

The voice is the most important sound for human beings, providing information about the identity, gender, age and emotional state of the speaker, as well as being the basis of our communication through language and other non-linguistic cues. Adults have a specific brain area that responds preferentially to voice among all other sounds.

High Arctic (left) and Continental Antarctic (right) lake bottoms, covered by dense microbial mats. Credits: David Velazquez An international research team of scientists led by biologists from Ghent University investigated the biodiversity and evolutionary history of microorganisms in Arctic, sub-Antarctic and Antarctic lakes in the first large scale study using DNA.

A major discovery in the understanding, diagnosis and treatment of leukemia. Research led by François Fuks - Cancer Epigenetics Laboratory, ULB Faculty of Medicine, ULB Cancer Research Center and Institut Jules Bordet, H.U.B . In Belgium, around 1,300 new cases of leukemia are diagnosed every year, a type of blood cancer that affects the entire population.

Affordable, effective and sustainable "fog nets" to capture droplets and combat water scarcity in deserts. An article by Denis Terwagne, Professor and Chairman of the Centre de Recherche en Physique, Faculty of Science, in The Conversation. In 2022, 2.2 billion people still have no access to drinking water services.

The laws of physics are based on universal principles, often associated with mathematical theorems. Identifying physical phenomena that escape these fundamental rules leads to a paradigm shift, and usually to major discoveries. In a paper published in Physical Review Letters, Lucila Peralta Gavensky, Nathan Goldman (Faculty of Science) and Subir Sachdev (Harvard), reveal a fundamental link between the violation of two major rules of solid-state physics: Luttinger's theorem and the classification rule for insulating materials .

Bedeloid rotifers, those mysterious microorganisms, display remarkable resistance to desiccation, ionizing radiation and even freezing. Under the direction of Karine Van Doninck - Faculty of Science, a team of researchers is investigating the molecular basis of this exceptional resistance, making rotifers model animals for research .

Peter Claes has successfully identified the genetic factor that accounts for the large variation in the shape of human skulls and faces, before subsequently identifying which of these genes play an important role in the risk of craniosynostosis, a condition where the fibrous sutures of a baby's skull join together too early, preventing the skull from expanding as the brain develops and grows in the first two years of life.

Many young people struggle with somber feelings, stress or anxiety symptoms. In a large-scale study, with support from the Fund for Scientific Research Flanders (FWO) and in the context of Red Noses Day (now "Jez!"), KU Leuven investigated whether mindfulness at school could help. For eight weeks, several class groups in eleven Flemish secondary schools followed mindfulness training.

Male fertility and reduced sperm quality plays a role in half of the cases of couples who cannot conceive. Research into the various causes of reduced sperm quality is hampered by incomplete knowledge of male reproductive biology. Therefore, Guillaume Richer of the Biology of the Testis research group at the Free University of Brussels developed a 3D model of the testis or testicle for his PhD study.

Researchers have built the first ever map showing how every single neuron in the nervous system of a tiny worm communicates wirelessly. This huge step forward in understanding how neurons communicate through extremely short proteins called neuropeptides will help scientists understand how our emotions and mental states are controlled, as well as widespread neuropsychiatric conditions like eating disorders, OCD and PSTD.

A team of European astronomers, co-led by researchers from the Institute of Astronomy, KU Leuven, used recent observations made with the James Webb Space Telescope to study the atmosphere of the nearby exoplanet WASP-107b. Peering deep into the fluffy atmosphere of WASP-107b they discovered not only water vapour and sulfur dioxide, but even silicate sand clouds.

Pancreatic cancer is an aggressive tumour that is very difficult to treat and has low survival rates. Previous studies show that there are two major subtypes of tumour: classical and basal. Basal tumours tend to be more aggressive and are more associated with invasion and metastasis. Much research is being carried out to determine whether the two subtypes respond differently to the most common chemotherapies, which would mean they should each receive targeted treatment.

Researchers Maarten Kuijk and Hans Ingelberts of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel are leading the international European consortium CoDaFlight (Colouring the Dark in Fluorescent light). The consortium's aim is to lay the foundation for the use of fluorescence lifetime imaging in medical procedures such as image-guided surgery and monitoring disease-related processes.

New software, developed at KU Leuven, can use brain waves to determine whether a person understands speech well. The researchers were able to successfully apply the technology for the first time to young, hearing-impaired children. In Flanders, one in a thousand infants come into the world with a severe hearing loss.

Fine dust from pulverised rock released by the impact of the Chicxulub meteorite 66 million years ago played a major role in climate cooling, disruption of photosynthesis and the mass extinction of dinosaurs, VUB researchers have found. Until now, the exact circumstances surrounding the mass extinction of the dinosaurs - such as the effect on the global climate of the material ejected by the meteorite's impact - have been unclear.

Fine dust from pulverized rock released by the Chicxulub meteorite impact 66 million years ago played a dominant role in the cooling of the climate, the disruption of photosynthesis and the mass extinction in which most dinosaurs went extinct. Until now, the precise circumstances of the mass extinction, such as the effect of the different types of impact material ejected from the crater on global climate were unclear .

The cells in our body continuously keep each other informed. They do this by exchanging, among other things, virus-like vesicles. Pascale Zimmermann's group, from the Department of Human Genetics, has been studying these vesicles for many years. Her fundamental research is necessary to use these intercellular messengers in medicine.

Knowing the energy of light absorbed by a molecule enables us to understand its structure, its quantum states, its interaction with other molecules and its potential technological applications. Molecules with a high probability of simultaneously absorbing two low-energy photons of light have a wide range of applications: as molecular probes in high-resolution microscopy, as substrates for data storage in dense three-dimensional structures or as vectors in medicinal treatments.