Videos

Do you remember baby Pia? She suffered from the rare muscle disease AMS and the medicine to save her cost a whopping €1.9 million. If you were the Minister of Health, would you pay for Pia's medicine? Even if that meant there was no budget left for another medicine that might save 100 people?

Have you ever been stressed because you had to give a presentation? What if we told you that linguistic research could give you the key to becoming a better presenter in any language of the world? Linguist Charlotte Bourgoin (KU Leuven) studies the "information structure of speech" in different languages. Her research can help you better convey information and thus become a better presenter, both in your native language and in foreign languages.

During a stroke, every second counts to save as many brain cells as possible. Intervention is only possible within a narrow time window of a few hours because late treatment can lead to serious complications. Is there nothing more we can do for these 'late' patients? There is, says neurologist trainee Lauranne Scheldeman!

In 2008 banks took too many risks and lied about their true condition. Their collapse led to a worldwide financial crisis, that had a huge impact on society. You may think that everything is better now, but is it? Or do banks only look safer than they really are? That's what Elizaveta Sizova (KU Leuven) is investigating, in order to assess bank risk.

"Each person is unique. So why do we still treat every woman with ovarian cancer the same way?" Liselore Loverix (KU Leuven - FWO) examines patient by patient and looks for errors in the DNA of their tumour cells. In this way, before treatment starts, she identifies which patient would benefit from a new, targeted therapy based on cancer drugs.

Dutch is full of loan words, such as "last minute" or "lunch". It seems as if it can borrow English words without any limit. But is that really the case? Linguist Marlieke Shaw (KU Leuven - FWO) looks into this by studying transcriptions of spoken texts. A real must-see for fans of the Dutch language.

There is only one stable grammar, which applies in all situations of language use, right? Not really, says linguist Alexandra Engel (KU Leuven). Her research shows that, depending on the formality of the situation, we use different variants of grammar - for example, you talk differently to your friend than to your boss. In a sense, we are multilingual in our own mother tongue.

You have no doubt come across it when opening your fridge: a packet of cheese full of mould or a pot of sauce with a suspiciously bulging lid. The culprits? Bacteria, yeasts and moulds. Food producers try to prevent this type of spoilage as much as possible, by ensuring that a product contains as few micro-organisms as possible when it leaves the factory. Bio-engineer Thijs Vackier is working on new cleaning agents that can better break down biofilms, protective mantles around micro-organisms, in food processing equipment.

Did you know that one of the brightest stars in the night sky is still a mystery to astronomers? Gamma Cassiopeia, the central star of the Cassiopeia constellation (the 'W' you can see at night), is rapidly spinning around its axis, much like a ballerina, causing it to break itself apart. And it's not the only one. Julia Bodensteiner wants to shed light on these spinning, or should we say 'dancing' stars.

Slim top models and muscled hunks are increasingly making way for realistic models in advertising campaigns. A good evolution, although it is not clear whether these campaigns actually result in a more positive body image. Orpha de Lenne studies realistic advertisements to find out how they can really make us feel better about our body. 

Together you are always stronger. Unfortunately, this also applies to some microbes, which can conspire to make us seriously ill. Microbiologist Katrien Van Dyck is investigating such a conspiracy between a fungus and a microbe that work together to cause a serious infection. By studying the interaction between the two, she hopes to find out how we can break their alliance.

Thanks to new radiotherapy techniques, more and more patients with head and neck cancer are surviving. But for 70% of them, this radiation causes chronic swallowing problems, making it difficult to eat and drink. Hanne Massonet hopes to help them enjoy food and drink again by training their tongue, mouth, and throat muscles.