Videos

Jose Maria
Cuevas
imec
KU Leuven

More solar power for a more sustainable future

Producing renewable, low-cost energy in a robust way remains a challenge. Jose Maria Cuevas (Imec - KU Leuven - Energyville) is looking at a new sort of solar cell that might help do the trick: the *take a breath* 3 Terminal Tandem Bifacial Solar Cell 😅 Say what ⁉️ Jose breaks it down and makes it crystal clear for you in this video. 👏
Max
Minne
UGent
VIB

Understanding how plants grow

Why is it that some plants like moss stay very small, while others grow to become large trees? 🌳 "There's still a lot that we don't know about how plants grow exactly", says Max Minne (VIB - UGent). To find out more Max uses an innovative technique that allows him to look at every single cell in the plant and unravel how the hormone cytokinin, responsible for plant growth, impacts each one of them. 
Pauline
Bardet
FWO
VIB
VUB

We ignore some lung cancer cells. Is that smart?

Up to 25% of the cells present in lung cancer tumours are currently ignored. As such, we don't know what the role of these so-called B cells is. "It is crucial to figure that out because we cannot efficiently fight something we do not fully understand," says Pauline Bardet (VUB - VIB - FWO).

In her PhD, she wants to get to the bottom of those B cells and thus find out whether those cells are "good guys" or "bad guys".
Jimmy
Beckers
KU Leuven
VIB

Can proper recycling cure ALS?

Roughly every 5 minutes someone on this planet dies of ALS, and the sad truth is that we still do not have an effective treatment to cure this disease. The problem lies in the fact that we do not fully understand what causes ALS in the first place. In his doctorate, Jimmy Beckers is trying to solve a piece of the puzzle. He is investigating whether a malfunction in our internal cellular recycling system might be linked to ALS.
Adnan
Albaba
imec
VUB

How radars will help deliver your pizza!

The year is 2040. A drone just landed on your doorstep, delivering your favorite pizza, which you just ordered a few minutes ago. 🍕 😋 What a time to be alive right?! To make this scenario a reality, Adnan Albaba (Imec - VUB) is working on radar technology to make self-navigating drones.
Saimum
Parveza
VUB

The religious lives of Bangladeshis in Europe

Why is it that Muslim migrants seem to become more religious after arriving in Europe, in a secular society? That's what Saimum Parvez (VUB) is investigating. He's looking into the case of Bangladeshi migrants, by raising questions such as: how do they participate in religious rituals? Do they see themselves as religious? And what impact does migration have on their religion?
Myrthe
Mampay
VUB

Stem cells in the battle against brain tumors

Once diagnosed with glioblastoma, a highly aggressive brain cancer, a patient has on average only 15 months to live. "This terrible statistic shows that we urgently need new treatment options," says Myrthe Mampay (VUB - FWO). In her research, she is looking for one such new treatment based on immunotherapy, in which she wants to use patient stem cells to make macrophages that attack the tumour.
Ante
Ivčević
VUB

What can science and policy learn from each other?

"Scientific information has to play a bigger role in the process of decision-making in policy." This is Ante Ivčević firm belief. In his research, he seeks to understand how policymakers make decisions and, more importantly, how we can get them to make these decisions based on scientific information. To investigate this, he researches science and policy regarding coastal areas in the Mediterranean basin.
Snehashis
Nandi

Challenges with long-acting medication

People suffering from a chronic brain disorder can be helped with long-acting injectables, medication that works for a long time and no longer requires them to take pills every day. But the traditional manufacturing process of long-acting medication is complex, time-consuming, and requires a lot of energy. Snehashis Nandi investigates how long-acting injectables can be produced sustainably and efficiently. 
Fatima
Anjum

From a pill every few hours to an injection every few months

Drugs in pill form work quickly, but their effects wear off just as fast. That's why people with chronic conditions have to take a pill every few hours. What if we could administer drugs in a different form so that they not only work fast but also last for weeks or even months? We can achieve this with long-acting injections, as Fatima Anjum explains 'crystal' clear in this video 😉
Margot
Coppens
KU Leuven

From powder to pills

Have you ever wondered how pills are made? A powder flows through a production line, falls into a hole, and gets compressed into a pill. Easy, right? And yet a lot can go wrong, as chemical engineer Margot Coppens explains. That's why she uses computer models to virtually test the powder mixtures and anticipate possible production problems.
Laure
Van den Bulcke
ILVO
UGent

What impact does man have on the North Sea?

What impact does man, through sand extraction for example, have on life on the bottom of the North Sea? To find out, experts manually check which (often very small) animals they can find in samples of the seafloor. But this way, it can take up to 10 hours to analyse one sample. In her research, Laure Van den Bulcke is working on a faster and cheaper method.