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Health - Life Sciences - 20.12.2023
Discoveries about our cells: the ability to feel relief
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.
Life Sciences - Health - 14.12.2023
Crack in the wall of WHO’s top priority pathogens
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.
Health - Pharmacology - 06.12.2023
Towards a new leukemia therapy?
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.
Life Sciences - Health - 15.11.2023
First wireless map of worm’s nervous system revealed
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.
Health - 14.11.2023
VUB maps complexity of pancreatic tumours
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.
Health - Life Sciences - 08.11.2023
Next generation of fluorescent medical imaging
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.
Health - Life Sciences - 27.10.2023
Intercellular messengers start revealing themselves
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.
Life Sciences - Health - 22.09.2023
VUB increases commitment to 3Rs principle in animal testing policy
Participation in regional action plan motivates university in ambition to replace, reduce and refine animal testing As a humanist university, the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) believes that science and empathy go hand in hand. In research that involves animals, respect and welfare are paramount. VUB recently committed to be part of the regional action plan of Flemish Animal Welfare minister Ben Weyts to reduce animal testing.
Chemistry - Health - 29.08.2023
Safe alternative to controversial building-block chemical
The chemical compound BPA (bisphenol A), commonly used in plastic products, has been controversial for years due to its adverse health effects. KU Leuven researchers have developed a BPA alternative with similar functionality that has no harmful effects on health or the environment. From lunch boxes, reusable water bottles and cutting boards to snuffle mats for dogs and children's bibs, anyone searching online for "BPA-free" products will be spoilt for choice.
Life Sciences - Health - 28.07.2023
A key to detecting Alzheimer’s with certainty
For years, scientists trying to gain a better understanding of Alzheimer's disease or other neurodegenerative disorders - tauopathies, since they involve the tau protein - have come up against one difficulty: how to diagnose the disease - beforehand - in a completely reliable way, since only autopsy today enables us to describe the tau protein aggregates in the brain, and thus to know with certainty what type of neurodegenerative disease the person was suffering from.
Health - 19.07.2023
VUB gerontologist advises WHO on senior policy
On average, we're living longer, but we're not necessarily remaining healthy for longer. Prof Ivan Bautmans, head of the Frailty in Ageing research group at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, wants to change this. Based on his expertise in gerontology, the study of ageing, he is coordinating an advisory group of the World Health Organization (WHO) with a focus on healthy ageing.
Pharmacology - Health - 06.07.2023
A first for UCLouvain in the fight against organ transplant rejection
In Belgium, 40% of people waiting for a transplant are unable to find an organ and therefore have to wait, which is why it is so important to guarantee the success of transplants. One of the major factors in failure is inappropriate dosages of the anti-rejection drug tacrolimus . University of Louvain (UCLouvain)-s Laure Elens and Laure Bindels have uncovered the influence of intestinal microbiota in the variability of the drug's dosages.
Health - Social Sciences - 03.07.2023
Impact of Covid-19 on young people’s health in the WHO European region
According to a series of reports published by WHO and the partner study Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC), adolescents who are most likely to have suffered from negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are female, older, from less affluent families, faced prolonged school closures or lacked social support.
Life Sciences - Health - 03.07.2023
KU Leuven research generates new insights into the development and care for ’the little brain’ of the gut
Loss of nerve cells is a process that can take place not only in the brain, but also in the (less well-known) nervous system in the gut. A new study, carried out at KU Leuven and published in Nature , shows that specialised immune cells shape this nervous system, enabling the gut to make the transition to solid food early in life.
Health - Pharmacology - 30.05.2023
KU Leuven and the Institut Pasteur of Dakar join forces for local vaccine production in Africa
Currently, only a meagre 1% of the vaccines needed for Africa are produced locally. The ambition is to raise this number to 60% by 2040. Together, KU Leuven and the Institut Pasteur of Dakar are working to overcome several significant challenges, including the need for continuous cooling, time-consuming methods for certain blood analyses in clinical studies, and the lack of vaccines against several deadly tropical diseases.
Health - 22.05.2023
New test determines how best to treat brain tumor
Because of the large number of different cell types in brain tumors, all of which respond differently to treatment, many patients relapse, and the chances of full recovery are very slim. A new diagnostic test, developed by KU Leuven, indicates from a biopsy whether a treatment can attack all the tumor cells present.
Health - Life Sciences - 04.05.2023
Researcher monitors antibiotic resistance using a smartphone
Researchers from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the EPFL in Lausanne, Switzerland, have developed a highly efficient method for rapid testing the sensitivity of bacteria to antibiotics. The technique, optical nanomotion detection (ONMD), is extremely fast, precise to a single cell and requires only a traditional microscope equipped with a camera or a mobile phone.
Health - Pharmacology - 13.04.2023
Biomarkers to predict how cancer patients respond to immunotherapy
Immunotherapy is a powerful way to treat cancer patients but up till now, it was hard to predict why some patients or cancer types do not benefit from this treatment. Researchers could identify markers which predict a patient's or cancer type's response to immunotherapy. For some cancers, immunotherapy can be integrated into the standard treatment but for others, further research is needed to either alter the immunological environment with cancer vaccines or to develop a new type of immunotherapies that target the tumour in another manner.
Health - Environment - 04.04.2023
Researchers calculate evolution of brain tumours and sea levels
David Tewodrose and Harry Zekollari are two of 13 researchers to receive a prestigious Odysseus grant, a start-up fund from the Research Foundation - Flanders (FWO). They will be based at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel for the next five years to develop their research practice. Tewodrose focuses on geometric analysis that is used in medical applications, among other uses.
Health - Pharmacology - 13.03.2023
Shifts in human gut microbiome due to COVID-19
COVID-19, caused by an infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, was declared a global pandemic by the World Health Organisation (WHO) in March 2020. While some people developed severe illness and required medical care, many people reported only mild-to-moderate symptoms, if any at all. However, many of the infected individuals have experienced persisting symptoms or frequent other infections months after the initial infection even if they weren-t much impacted by the disease to begin with.
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