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Researchers have identified for the first time the mechanisms by which communication between cells controls the identity of stem cells from the mammary gland and prostate. The mammary gland and prostate are composed of two different cell types: basal cells and luminal cells. These two cell types are maintained by separate basal and luminal stem cells.

A Belgian patient had COVID-19 twice. She was reinfected 93 days after the first infection and experienced symptoms in both occasions. The virus isolates from her nasal swab test were analysed at KU Leuven. In March 2020, a 51-year-old patient presented to her general physician with a fever, cough, chest pain, shortness of breath, muscle pain and a sudden loss of smell and taste.

During the lockdown, 26% fewer patients were admitted to Belgian hospitals following a heart attack. "Patients were more reluctant to go to the hospital, but on the upside, people got to unwind and relax more, resulting in fewer heart problem", says cardiologist Marc Claeys (UZA/UAntwerp). With the coronavirus pandemic in full swing, many physicians sounded the alarm in the media: they feared that people with problems unrelated to COVID-19 would put off going to their doctor or even the emergency room out of fear of becoming infected with the virus.

ExeVir Bio, a technology platform with potential to generate robust antiviral therapies. ExeVir Bio announces today a first closing of a EUR23 million Series A financing led by Fund+, with the participation of VIB, UCB Ventures, the Belgian Federal Government via SFPI-FPIM, V-Bio Ventures and several Belgian family offices.

According to UCLouvain research conducted in collaboration with WHO, Stanford University, and Harvard Medical School, measles vaccination is taking a back seat to the fight against Covid-19 120 million children are at risk of not being vaccinated this year in poor countries, where Covid-19 claims far fewer victims than measles The study was published in the prestigious scientific journal Science Article: https://doi.org/10.1126/sci

The world is eagerly awaiting one or more vaccines to protect us against the SARS-CoV-2 virus. We will only be able to fully resume our lives when we are immune to the infection.

Virologists at the Rega Institute at KU Leuven (Belgium) have developed a vaccine candidate that protects hamsters from infection with the SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus. Theirs is one of the first vaccine candidates that is proven to protect lab animals from infection. The team aims to start clinical trials next Winter.

Breast cancer patients who are overweight or obese might benefit less from treatment with docetaxel, a common chemotherapy drug, than lean patients. An international team of researchers based this conclusion on a retrospective analysis of data from a large clinical trial. Their study was published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology .

As humanity fights against the coronavirus, the battle against antibiotic resistant bacteria continues Scientists at UCLouvain have succeeded in capturing unique images of protein soldiers that help bacteria resist drugs. This discovery is published in the prestigious scientific The image recordings will make it possible to develop new attacks on bacteria and thus produce Article: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41589-020-0575-0 The resistance of bacteria to antibiotics is a major health problem.

The measles virus may have emerged as early as the 6 th century BCE, an international team of researchers reports. The finding is based on a virus sample found in Germany that dates back to 1912. It is the oldest human RNA virus genome that has been sequenced to date. The study was published in Science .

Objective: increase COVID-19 screening capacity throughout Europe via a mobile, fast and flexible method First phase: Piedmont, Italy , to screen front-line teams (medical, volunteer, police, civil protection) The University of Louvain (UCLouvain ) and the European Space Agency (ESA ) are joining forces to deploy a mobile laboratory capable of testing front-line screening teams : doctors, nurses, volunteers, police, civil protection actors.

They did not sit back during the lockdown! As scientists worldwide, the UNamur researchers were in the battle against Covid-19 since the beginning of the crisis. Their expertise bore around 20 research projects, often in collaboration with other Belgian or foreign universities. Thanks to their initiatives and work, society becomes aware of the importance of research and the numerous disciplines involved when fighting a pandemic.

To form metastases, cancer cells must be able to migrate. But cancer cells are connected to each other by 'Velcro'. University of Louvain (UCLouvain) researchers have discovered that certain cancer cells manage to suppress this 'Velcro' effect so that they can migrate more easily. It's a mechanism called endocytosis.

Research at Ghent University shows that COVID-19 pandemic affects mental health and daily lives of autistic adults. Research group EXPLORA (Ghent University) has set up an online survey to investigate the effects of the current COVID-19 pandemic on the mental health and daily lives of adults on the autism spectrum.

The accumulation of one particular protein in the brain is at the basis of three very different age-related conditions. Until recently, nobody understood how this was possible. Research by the Laboratory for Neurobiology and Gene Therapy now reveals that the shape of the protein determines the clinical picture.

Antwerp researchers launch website to compare coronavirus impact per country. All European countries are currently fighting the coronavirus. The capacity of their respective health systems will play a decisive role in their efforts to combat COVID-19. UAntwerp scientists have developed a method to compare the pressure on different countries' health systems in real time.

Scientists have composed a complete map of the cells in the developing human thymus. They identified more than 50 different cell states in the human thymus which dynamically change in abundance during life. For the first time, scientists from the VIB Center for Inflammation Research, Ghent University, The Wellcome Sanger Institute (UK), and Newcastle University (UK) have composed a complete map of the cells in the developing human thymus.

In the event of a bone fracture, fatty acids in our blood signal to stem cells that they have to develop into bone-forming cells. If there are no blood vessels nearby, the stem cells end up forming cartilage. The finding that specific nutrients directly influence the development of stem cells opens new avenues for stem cell research.

The lab of professor Xavier Saelens (VIB-Ghent University) is quickly mobilizing to try to find a treatment for the viral infection caused by the corona virus. Since the coronavirus (2019-nCoV) outbreak was reported by China in December 2019, the number of confirmed cases of the virus is increasing rapidly, with cases now reported in 28 countries.

Biomedical scientists at KU Leuven have discovered that a defect in the ATP13A2 gene causes cell death by disrupting the cellular transport of polyamines. When this happens in the part of the brain that controls body movement, it can lead to Parkinson's disease. With more than six million patients around the world, Parkinson's disease is one of the most common neurodegenerative disorders.