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All-Luxembourg study helps to anticipate a personal COVID-19 health trajectory From the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, the majority of published studies have focused on severe COVID-19 patients in order to understand the causes of critical illness. However, it is equally, if not more important to understand the protective immune factors in our body.

Researchers delve into the inner workings of the antibody immune response, finding key differences in the metabolism of two closely related immune cell subsets. Protection against viral diseases is a key role of our body's immune response, where antibodies are generated to seek out invading species and either neutralise or mark them for destruction.

Researchers from the Luxembourg Centre for Systems Biomedicine (LCSB) at the University of Luxembourg, in collaboration with the Max Planck Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin, investigated the different cell types present in the human midbrain to better understand their respective role in Parkinson's disease.

Couples unable to get pregnant naturally often resort to In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) to fulfil their desire to have children. To obtain mature eggs for IVF, women typically undergo ovarian stimulation with hormones which can be very burdensome. A team of scientists of the Follicle Biology (FOBI) Research Laboratory at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) in collaboration with the UZ Brussel fertility clinic has succeeded in developing a novel method for In Vitro Maturation (IVM) of oocytes, called CAPA-IVM.

Researchers from the Human Physiology and Sports Physiotherapy research group at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel have shown that physical fatigue affects an athlete's brain when performing a functional balance test. The accuracy with which a representative group of recreational athletes responded to a novel reactive balance test was measured, alongside their response time.

VUB professor Ann Massie and her research group Neuro-Aging & Viro-Immunotherapy have published a surprising finding in an article in the leading journal Molecular Psychiatry. They have discovered a strategy that results in prolonged life expectancy and counteracts memory loss during the aging process.

VUB, Sciensano, Flanders and Brussels call on scientists to share expertise on alternative testing methods via RE-Place platform A few years ago, the Flemish and Brussels Regions launched RE-Place , a platform for researchers to share their expertise on alternatives to animal testing.

World Cancer Day, 4 February: Ex-cancer patients have to get used to life again Cancer patients who have survived serious treatment and are free of the disease often suffer an enormous psychological blow afterwards and find it difficult to pick up the thread of life again.

VUB research suggests pain education and lifestyle are important components of a multimodal approach to treat persistent pain Friday, February 4, 2022 — 4 February is #WorldCancerDay After cancer treatment, many patients continue to suffer from pain. About four out of ten cancer survivors have chronic pain complaints.

World Cancer Day, 4 February: Award-winning research on incurable blood cancer Researchers at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, led by Eline Menu, have investigated how changes in metabolism contribute to cancer resistance and relapse.

AI system can predict risk of heart attack based on retinal scan An international team of researchers have developed an AI system that can identify patients who are likely to have a heart attack over the next year. The system reads retinal scans that are already commonly used in eye clinics. Doctors have recognised that changes to the tiny blood vessels in the retina are indicators of broader vascular disease, including problems with the heart.

Two research groups from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel have established a collaboration in which they predict the response to the standard treatment for rectal cancer based on medical images (e.g.

In cancer research, it has long been known that lactic acid, or lactate, is produced in large quantities by cancer cells and that this lactic acid disrupts our defence against tumours.

In brief: Parkinson's disease is the second most common neurodegenerative disease, but we still do not understand why this disease occurs. Scientists from the UCLouvain de Duve Institute have discovered a new type of molecular damage that is (glycolysis). They also discovered a mechanism that allows cells to prevent this type of damage.

Researcher returns from US with state-of-the-art knowledge Friday, January 21, 2022 — VUB scientist Gamze Ates has been awarded €100,000 for research into Alzheimer's disease.

VUB research shows that living close to wetlands increases risk of diseases such as malaria or pulmonary infections such as possible Tuberculosis Wednesday, January 12, 2022 — For her PhD at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the University of Sheffield, Dr. Marit Van Cant studied medieval to early modern skeletal populations from six archaeological sites in Flanders.

From abdominal pain after eating certain foods to experimental hearing implants: in this overview, we present the most-read news items about research at KU Leuven in 2021. KU Leuven develops very potent antiviral against dengue 6 October Researchers have developed an inhibitor of the dengue virus. The antiviral molecule is effective against all known dengue variants and could be used for therapeutic and prevention purposes.

The coronavirus pandemic has the world in its grip. Worldwide, more than 265 million cases of Covid-19 have been registered, and more than 5.2 million people have died from it. About 14% of people infected with Covid-19 end up in hospital and some require intensive care. These patients face lung problems, neurological disorders, reduced physical capacity, muscle weakness and psychological and cognitive impairment.

It's estimated that half of the adult population worldwide snores, with or without dangerous interruptions of breathing and related health risks such as cardiovascular disease, obesity, fatigue and concentration problems.

KU Leuven presents 7 reports that scrutinise various aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic What are the socio-economic and psychological consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic and the measures to control it?