news 2026

VUB research shows that targeted protection makes mangroves more resilient to climate change. A new study by an international team of researchers shows how climate change can be better considered when protecting mangrove forests. The researchers found that even modest increases in protected areas can make these ecosystems more resilient to climate change.

BRUSSELS 03/03/2026 - An international team of scientists, led by researchers from the Free University of Brussels (VUB) and UZ Brussel, has made a major breakthrough in the study of how our bodies maintain healthy blood sugar levels. In a new study, they show that young beta cells, the tiny factories in the pancreas that produce insulin, need an enormous amount of iron to become mature and functional.

How can we better understand and measure the quality of life of children living with life-limiting or life-saving conditions? While research on this topic exists, it too often excludes the very individuals most affected: the children themselves, a group frequently considered "too vulnerable" to participate ( Namisango et al.

"We want our models to understand the underlying structure of tables, just like humans do" The growing volume of reports, invoices, scientific publications and other business documents increasingly challenges companies and institutions to process information quickly and reliably. In his doctoral research at VUB entitled Representation Learning for Table Understanding in Intelligent Document Processing, Willy Carlos Tchuitcheu (Mathematics & Data Science Research Group) developed an innovative method that teaches computers to handle those tables much better.

New research reveals that, in space, certain heart muscles are put to the test by weightlessness. In just a few months, they atrophy. The consequences of this process, which takes decades on Earth, on astronauts' health remain to be assessed. On a positive note, these results could advance our understanding of certain mechanisms behind mitral valve insufficiency.

An international team of scientists has just demonstrated that major Himalayan earthquakes occur randomly over the long term, with no predictable pattern. Published in Science Advances, the study is based on the analysis of sediment cores taken from the bottom of Nepalese lakes, reconstructing 6,000 years of seismic activity.

For many people, cancer treatment still means surgery, chemotherapy, or radiotherapy. But today, for a growing number of patients, treatment can involve something very different: their own immune cells.

A new international study highlights the major influence of the melting of the Antarctic ice cap in the past evolution of ocean circulation. The results show how this process has profoundly influenced the Earth's climate, and suggest that it could play a decisive role in the ocean's future capacity to absorb man-made carbon dioxide and excess heat linked to global warming.

An international team has described Foskeia pelendonum , a tiny Early Cretaceous ornithopod from Vegagete (Burgos, Spain), measuring barely half a meter long.

Not just milk, season or processing conditions, but also microbial dynamics in the factory and bacterial cultures determine the flavour of Gouda cheese.

No ice left by the year 3000, with a potential contribution of more than 7 metres to sea-level rise Greenland, which has been prominently in the news in recent days, hosts a vast ice sheet. If it melts, it will become one of the largest contributors to global sea-level rise. Under a high-emissions scenario, the Greenland Ice Sheet is expected to largely disappear over time, with far-reaching consequences.

An interdisciplinary team of ULB researchers has developed molecules capable of transporting copper ions across the lipid membranes of cells. In collaboration with colleagues from the Université Grenoble Alpes, they have demonstrated that copper transport is an effective strategy for destroying cancer cells.

VUB research reveals how climate change enables mangroves to colonize new coastal regions In recent decades, mangroves along the Atlantic coast of North America have expanded into areas traditionally dominated by salt marshes. This shift shows that climate change is already reshaping temperate coastal ecosystems, with consequences for biodiversity, carbon storage, and shoreline protection.