Videos

A dog's nose is one of the most powerful sensors we have. Trained dogs are even able to detect early signs of certain diseases by sniffing our breath. As this would not be very practical, Alex Cruz is looking to integrate a doglike 'nose' in our smartphones to do the trick.

Did you know that the water we drink and the air we breathe contain small fractions of metals? If the doses are low, this is not a problem, but once they're too high, this becomes harmful to our health. That's why Reinhart Van Poucke wants to capture metal particles from the air, water, and soil so that they don't end up in our food chain.

Melanoma is a very common and lethal type of skin cancer. Melanoma cells have a strange, yet effective defence mechanism called autophagy: they can manage to survive by eating parts of themselves. Monica Vara Perez tries to figure out this self-cannibalism mechanism in order to help defeat melanoma.

Did you know that our body contains more than 20.000 different types of proteins? These are crucial for vital functions such as wound healing. But when these proteins mutate, they can lead to diseases such as Alzheimer's. To help fight such protein-based diseases, Shorok Abdelhameed investigates methods to study the very complex structures of proteins.

We used to go to the doctor when feeling ill. Now we all first pay a visit to Doctor Google. But how reliable is online health information? Joyce Stroobant (University of Ghent) has three tips for you to assess the trustworthiness of online health info.

Almost 100 years ago Alexander Fleming discovered the first antibiotic: penicillin. Even then, he warned that there would come a day when bacteria would be resistant to all antibiotics. That day is now very near. Will the 'killer combination' of enzybiotics and water droplets save us from super-bacteria?

Worldwide, some 235 million people suffer from asthma. Drugs such as a quick-relief inhaler can help to suppress their symptoms. But they can't cure asthma. Fien Gysens hopes that her research will contribute to finding a cure for asthma!

Mice that follow a low-calorie diet appear to be protected against the development of Alzheimer’s disease. Charysse Vandendriessche is investigating why this is the case to gather more insight in the underlying disease mechanism. This information could into the future contribute to the development of a treatment against this devastating disease.

Do you know where these worms live? Well, they actually live in the intestines of humans. A quarter of the world population is infected with these soil-transmitted helminths. Sara Roose is developing a new diagnostic test to help fight human worm infections.

Frederik Engelen is working on vaccines for cattle. This way, he wants to ensure that beef does not become contaminated with a dangerous variant of the e-coli bacterium.

Rahel Park has a dilemma for you: what to do if a bunch of flies land on the cake you were just about to eat? Should you eat it anyway or should you throw it away? Watch the video for the -scientifically substantiated- answer!

Not all mothers can breastfeed, which is a pity, because breastfeeding contains important molecules for the baby. But what if we add these molecules to powdered milk? That is what Anke Goormans is working on to help mothers and their babies.