Videos

A stupid accident, cancer, or a hernia - it can all cause a spinal cord injury in which certain parts of your body are then paralysed. But there is also a hidden effect - an effect in the blood, explains Naomi Veeningen (UHasselt) 🩸

Biologist Nikol Kmentová is fascinated by ... parasites. Why? Because they are the most successful life form on earth. To find out why they are the true champions of life on Earth, Nikol tries to unravel the secrets of these fascinating creatures in the depths of Lake Tanganyika in Africa. In this video, she reveals the strategies that allow parasites to thrive in one of the most diverse ecosystems on the planet!

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! 💡✨

Did you know that AI can help doctors detect breast cancer? Or that it can be used to predict sepsis, a life-threatening condition, in premature babies? AI seems to be a great advancement in many ways, yet many people fear or don't trust the technology. Ignace Decroix wants to identify what exactly causes people to have more or less trust in AI.

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. 

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".

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.

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.

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?

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.

"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.

Should you be worried if, for instance, your cholesterol level is above the normal value? Not necessarily. As Murih Pusparum (VITO - UHasselt) argues: test results are often compared to a standard range of normal values, while every person might have his or her own range depending on age, gender, and genetic or biological traits. That's why she is working on more personalised diagnosis.