Videos

Did you know there are countless species of mosquitoes, some of which can transmit dangerous diseases? Identifying these tiny creatures—or any other species— is no easy task, even for seasoned biologists. Luckily Ann Vanderheyden and her colleagues at the 'Species Identification Service' can help. ​​​​​​​So.. if there's something weird, and it don't look good... Who you gonna call? 🕵️‍♂️🔍

Did you know Belgium uses more of its seaspace for wind farms than any other country? This noise disrupts marine life, like North Sea harbour porpoises. Bob Rumes uses underwater microphones to study underwater noise and how it affects porpoises.

The rise of CO2 levels has many harmful effects on our planet. A part of the solution is capturing CO2 emissions and transforming them into valuable chemicals and fuels, while potentially slowing climate change. Wenjian Hu explains how this carbon conversion works. His research aims to make the process more efficient, paving the way for scaling up from lab experiments to big industrial plants.

Every machine, from your phone to rockets in space, heats up and needs to cool down. To keep your devices from overheating, heat exchangers and heat sinks play a crucial role in absorbing and dissipating excess heat. But how can we make these systems even better? Samanwitha Kolli is keeping it cool with 3D-printing technology!

Did you know that 1 in 4 products that surround you contains precious metals? Think about your phone, laptop, or car. "Since these metals are rare and expensive, we urgently need better ways to recycle them", says Omar Martinez (VITO - KU Leuven). His PhD has led to a breakthrough solution: he developed a new, sustainable method, called GDEx, which allows for the selective recovery of these precious metals, with nearly 100% efficiency.

Away with bare boxwood bushes! The infamous boxwood moth went on a rampage in Flanders in recent years 🐛🌳 But don't panic! Meet Japanese holly, a robust alternative that is immune to these voracious caterpillars. The catch? The soil in many Flemish gardens is not acidic enough for this shrub to grow well. Bioengineer Esther Geukens will therefore tinker with the plants and the soil so that Japanese holly can thrive here.

If you get a glioblastoma, you usually only have about 15 months to live.This malignant tumour spreads rapidly through the brain and unfortunately cannot be cured. Yanti De Visser is working on a personalised treatment to already slow down the brain tumour - with success. "The first results show that our approach has the potential to extend patients' lives by years, rather than months," she says.

Every 3 minutes, a woman dies of ovarian cancer somewhere in the world. "Ovarian cancer is very sneaky. Most of the patients respond positively to the therapies initially provided to them, but eventually, the cancer comes back and is much more aggressive. As a result one in two ovarian cancer patients die within 5 years after diagnosis." But what if we were able to treat ovarian cancer with a new therapy using our cells?

Did you know that 20% of all healthcare expenses are 'waste'? "We are spending large sums of money on things that don't really improve patients' health, such as overtreatment, administrative efficiencies, and so on", says Joke Borzee. To treat our financially ill healthcare sector, she is working on a scoring model to assess the overall value of treatments. Watch her explain how this would work.

Have you ever heard of the mysterious "crazy root disease"? Sounds like something you'd rather not have in your garden or greenhouse, right? 🌱 Find out more about this bizarre plant disease and how the VIB and the KU Leuven are determined to get rid of it! 💡✨

Thanks to advanced proton therapy, doctors can precisely start irradiating brain tumours. Unfortunately, they do not yet dare to use this technique on tumours in the belly. Why? Because it's a bit like playing darts with a blindfold, while you have to hit a moving target, as Sophie Heymans explains in this video. She tells you about the technique she is working on to help doctors face this challenge.

What if we could predict whether a person with dementia is about to become agitated? That would help caregivers intervene in time and direct their attention to this person, so as to prevent agitation onset. That's what Hannah Davidoff (KU Leuven - Imec) hopes to achieve. Using wearables and other sensors, she builds algorithms to detect agitation.