In Belgium and the Netherlands, more than 1,000 people suffer from DFNA9, a condition that causes hereditary hearing loss and balance disorders. DFNA9 is due to an error in the DNA of the ear. Dorien Verdoodt (UAntwerp) is conducting research into a new therapy based on the revolutionary Crispr genetic technique. In this way, she hopes to be able to cure hereditary hearing loss in the future with a syringe in the ear.

Radiation can save the lives of people with head and neck cancer. Unfortunately, many patients develop swallowing disorders as a result of the treatment, which makes it impossible for them to eat solid food. Leen Van den Steen (UAntwerpen - UZA) wants to help them. How? With tongue strength training.

Biologist Sébastjen Schoenaers (UAntwerpen) watches his son Ferre grow rapidly. Yet Ferre grows 150 times slower than an ordinary corn leaf 🌱 We still don't understand how plants do this. Sébastjen zooms in on the plant up to molecular level to figure out how it really grows 🔬 This can help us grow plants better and faster.

Heart failure patients have a lot of trouble with physical exertion. They can barely even walk the dog. To improve their condition, they can follow training programs in the hospital. But more than half of the patients hardly benefit from them. Cardiologist in training Isabel Witvrouwen (UAntwerpen - University Hospital Antwerp) is trying to find out why.

Imagine constantly hearing a ringing bell, a jackhammer, or that awful beep of the old television test screen in your head. That's what people with tinnitus experience. At the UZA they want to treat people with tinnitus better. For too long the cause was sought in the ear, without looking at the crucial motor that controls all our perceptions: the brain. Emilie Cardon (UAntwerpen) explains why we have to look for tinnitus there.

All the elements we find here on earth were created long ago in the universe, floating around space in the form of stardust, coming from massive stars. "If we want to understand earth and where we came from, we need to understand these massive stars", says astronomer Abigail Frost (KU Leuven). That's why, using a technique called interferometry, she observes these rare and very distant stars.