Videos

Charis
Van der Straeten
UGent

How oral habits shape your teeth

Have you ever tried to unlearn an old habit, such as nail biting? That is easier said than done. This is also the case with bad oral habits, such as pushing your tongue against your teeth when swallowing. This can cause problems to your teeth, such as an upset position of your teeth. Charis Van der Straeten how a speech therapist can help children unlearn their bad mouth habits.
Cheima
Amrouch
UGent

How to manage drug use in older adults with atrial fibrillation

More than half of the older population has to take at least five medicines a day. This often leads to mistakes, for example medicines interacting badly, increasing the risk of falls, hospitalisation, or even death. The key is medication optimisation: doctors should review medication intake, but unfortunately, they just don't have the time to do this for every patient. That is why Cheima Amrouch is working on a different approach.
Freek
Van de Casteele
FWO
UGent

Training tailored to your muscles

Do you have a lot of fast or rather slow muscle fibers? No worries if you don't know the answer. But for athletes, this is crucial info as it determines how best to train. Only there is one big problem, about 15 centimeters big to be precise .... That's how long the needle, used to remove a piece of muscle to find out someone's muscle fiber type, is. Sounds painful and it is. That's why Freek Van de Casteele is looking for new, reliable, and painless methods.
Heleen
Van Der Biest
UGent

The impact of chemotherapy on your hearing and balance

Some 300,000 people overcame cancer in Belgium in the past decade. Great news, but there is a downside: chemotherapy can cause permanent damage to the sense of hearing and balance, leading to hearing loss, tinnitus, or balance problems. To better identify the problem, Heleen Vander Biest (UGent) will test patients' ears just before starting, during, and after chemotherapy.
Yanti
De Visser
KU Leuven
UGent

Dismantle the brain tumour time bomb

If you get a glioblastoma, you usually only have about 15 months to live.This malignant tumour spreads rapidly through the brain and unfortunately cannot be cured. Yanti De Visser is working on a personalised treatment to already slow down the brain tumour - with success. "The first results show that our approach has the potential to extend patients' lives by years, rather than months," she says.
Jens
Boyen
FWO
UGent

More omega-3 fatty acids on our plates thanks to copepods?

Do you often eat fish? 🐟 Through fish, you get a lot of healthy #omega3 fatty acids. Yet we don't owe those omega-3 to the fish themselves. Marine biologist Jens Boyen tells you about the little heroes who provide the healthy omega-3.
Kenneth
Vanbrabant
UHasselt

Is getting some fresh air always as healthy as we think?

In the few minutes you watch this video, you breathe in thousands of fine dust particles. And did you know that this particulate matter can be found in your brain as early as 24 hours later? Biomedicist Kenneth Vanbrabant counts particulate matter particles in brain sections of deceased people. In this way, he wants to gather enough evidence so that governments can draw up better regulations for our air quality.
Lena
Fonteyn
UHasselt

Train your immune system and live to be 100 years old

Did you know that exercising is not only good for your health, but also has a positive impact on your immune system? Only scientists don't know exactly why. Lena Fonteyn dives deeper into the mystery of myokines - substances your muscle cells produce during exercise. "If we can unravel this secret, we can help you train your immune system and maybe reach 100 in a healthy way!"
Jolien
Van den Bosch
UHasselt

What do your wisdom teeth and cancer have in common?

Fighting cancer with wisdom teeth - it almost sounds like the tooth fairy's fairy tale. And yet it is a fairy tale that could well come true. Jolien Van den Bosch (UHasselt) wants to use stem cells from wisdom teeth to develop a new therapy against cancer. One could even say she's fighting ... tooth and nail to make this happen.
Sarra
Zaghbouni
UHasselt

How tiny diamonds can help us study brain injury

Meet Sarra Zaghbouni. She unleashes nano-sized diamonds to decode the brain's secrets! 💎🧠 Teaming up with physicists, she's creating these tiny carbon heroes that sense and control temperature, allowing her to study how this affects the growth of neurons 🌡️ This research could help accelerate healing after brain injuries!
Naomi
Veeningen
UHasselt

Spinal cord injury and ageing of your immune system

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) 🩸
Michelle
Laeremans
VITO

Chemicals in the body mapped

To measure is to know. That is the credo of Michelle Laeremans (VITO). Together with a team of researchers, she monitors the health of 300 children in Mol, Dessel, and Retie (Belgium). They do this from pregnancy until the child reaches the age of 18. In this way, they map exposure to chemicals.