Videos

In 1933, the very first kidney transplant was performed. Unfortunately, the patient died two days later due to rejection symptoms. The development of anti-rejection drugs provided a solution, but also came with a price: over 1 in 5 patients now develop diabetes after a transplant. Yassine Laghrib (UAntwerpen) explains why and how doctors are looking for a solution.

People with hearing loss do not only struggle with hearing problems. Hearing loss can also cause loneliness, emotional problems, and even an increased risk of dementia in the elderly. So after hearing implant placement, one should not only focus on hearing, but also on quality of life, explains Ellen Andries.

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.

Snoring can be very annoying for your bed partner, but it can also seriously disrupt your own sleep as a snorer. Because did you know that snoring is sometimes accompanied by periods in which you literally stop breathing - sometimes even for minutes at a time? That is the case with obstructive sleep apnea. Marijke Dieltjens wants to restore peace and quiet in the bedroom by helping people who suffer from this with a small, personalized mouth brace. She explains how this works in this video.

In Belgium, around 10,000 dogs suffer from epilepsy 🐕 This makes it the most common neurological disorder. Unfortunately, the seizures are often difficult to explain and thus to treat. Fien Verdoodt (UGent) explains why the cause might lie in intestinal bacteria...

Refugees, migrants and ethnic minorities face complex problems, such as trauma, a loss of social network as well as discrimination. As a result, this can lead to mental and drugs problems. But do these people receive equitable drug treatment when they need it, here in Flanders? That's what Charlotte De Kock (Ghent University) devotes her research to.

Suppose you have to choose between these dishes: will you go for the pizza, pasta carbonara, or rather the salad or the piece of fish? Well, did you know that the camera perspective in these photos has an effect on your (un)healthy food choices? Eva Meersseman (Ghent University) explains how this works.

Every three seconds, someone in the world is diagnosed with dementia. But what causes it? Dementia can be caused by diseases such as Alzheimer's & Parkinson's. The only way to find out the exact cause is by studying the brain tissue of a patient after his death 🧠  Yaël Hirschberg hopes to develop a method of identifying this earlier so that a patient can receive targeted care even before the first symptoms of dementia appear. Watch her explain how