Videos

Do you ever wake up feeling like you have been run over by a truck? You are not alone. As many as 1 in 5 adults suffer from a sleep disorder, ranging from sleep apnoea to insomnia. With a compact, wearable device and AI, Elisabeth Heremans wants to analyse sleep problems in patients from the comfort of their own bed, instead of having them spend the night in a sleep clinic attached to a bunch of wires.

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.

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.

Anyone who has ever looked for Waldo knows how hard he is to find. In her research on lung cancer, Rebekka Van Hoof (Uhasselt - KU Leuven - VITO) faces a similar task: she is searching within more than 100,000 so-called extracellular vesicles for 2 types -say 'Waldos'- that can help detect the disease early. But she is determined to narrow her search field. How? Watch her explain it in this video. 

Do you remember Pac-Man, from that old skool computer game? Well, did you know that there are Pac-Mans in every single cell of our body? They're called enzymes. Some of these enzymes work too fast or too slow, and this can cause severe diseases. Michaela Prothiwa (KU Leuven) explains how she wants to track down these malfunctioning enzymes using a clever piece of chemistry.

What if your brain could heal itself when damaged? Science fiction? Not for the African turquoise killifish! Neuroscientist Valerie Mariën is studying this remarkable fish and how it is able to repair its brain, in the hope that in the future she will be able to help people with brain damage. 

About 1 billion people contract a fungal infection every year. Often it is only a superficial infection, but in some cases, it is worse and the fungus can get into the bloodstream. If that happens, you only have one chance in two of surviving. Jana Nysten wants to help increase that chance of survival by looking for a new medicine.

About half of the elderly people suffer from pain in the shoulders, hips, or knees. They can be helped with artificial implants, but unfortunately, the current implants are not extremely durable, so many patients have to undergo repeated surgery. Cong Hou (KU Leuven) and his colleagues are developing new, more durable implants. Their ultimate goal: one life, one surgery.

What if you only had 15 months to live? Hard to imagine, right? Yet every day, around 1,000 people worldwide hear this news. The verdict: glioblastoma, a malignant brain tumor. Yet a small group of patients manages to survive for more than 10 years with such a brain tumor. Brecht Decraene wants to finds out why.

Have you ever been so stressed that you couldn't function properly? The same happens in the brain cells of patients with the nerve disease multiple sclerosis (MS) 🧠 Certain cells that help our brain to recover can no longer function properly due to too much stress. Lieve Van Veggel wants to help protect these cells. In this way, she and her colleagues hope to find a new way to slow down or even stop the progression of MS ✋🏻 🛑

Of the 100 potential drugs that companies develop, only a small fraction make it to your medicine cabinet. The majority are rejected after disappointing cell and animal tests. Stijn Dilissen (Uhasselt) is working on a method to find out more quickly and cheaply whether a drug will work or not.