news 2018

KU Leuven scientists present a new way to generate oligodendrocytes, building blocks of the brain that play a crucial role in neurodegenerative diseases such as multiple sclerosis and ALS. The method makes it much easier to study these cells and explore their therapeutic potential. All stem cells are immature, and pluripotent stem cells are the most immature among them: they can give rise to all different cell types of the body.

A stellar core that challenges predictions: here is the result of the first cartography of the interior of a white-dwarf star performed by an international team that includes  Valérie Van Grootel and Marc-Antoine Dupret , two researchers belonging to the STAR Institute at Université de Liège. This discovery will provide insights on the different physical mechanisms involved in the evolution of stars and our Sun.

Could the manufacture of the integrated circuits and chips for our everyday electronic devices be made simpler, safer and cheaper simply by being able to switch coloured light on and off? Researchers from Queensland University of Technology (QUT, Australia), Germany's Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) and Belgium's Ghent University have stepped towards this  by pioneering a system that modulates visible, coloured light to change the reactions of a powerful chemical coupling agent.