Science & Health
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Health News 2021
March 25, 2021
Are bats responsible for the coronavirus? It’s not...
Since the beginning of the pandemic, bats have been blamed for transmitting the SARS-Cov-2 virus to humans. There is no scientific proof that this is true. Meanwhile, the...
March 18, 2021
Parental burnout linked to Western individualism
Parental exhaustion is universal. Stress-related suffering in parenting has received increased attention in recent years. Are parents in certain countries more affected by the...
Health News 2020
December 15, 2020
When bacteria hang on tight
The small world of bacteria never ceases to amaze us. Prof. Yves Dufrêne’s team has just demonstrated that a staphylococcus is capable of clinging fiercely to a host cell in the...
November 13, 2020
Health and technology
A prosthesis continues its path to the market
A bionic prosthesis ‘Made in UCLouvain’ is on the doorstep of one of the field’s world market leaders. Since 1 October, Prof. Renaud Ronsse’s team has been developing its prosthesis in...
October 27, 2020
Silica dust toxicity exposed
The inhalation of silica dust in mines, quarries and construction sites causes serious diseases such as silicosis and bronchial cancers. Its toxicity, while proven, hasn’t been well understood...
September 16, 2020
Health
Preventing the coronavirus-cell bond
While some scientists seek a vaccine against the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), others try to understand the virus’s entry mechanism. For months Prof. David Alsteens's laboratory team has...
September 10, 2020
Science and health
Piecing together the primary lymphoedema puzzle
What causes lymphoedema, the swelling of parts of the body from the build-up of lymph fluid? Until recently, no one knew. This was before research carried out by Prof. Miikka Vikkula and his...
September 09, 2020
Environment
Never before seen fusion of giant black holes!
© Ingrid Bourgault
Huge black holes that aren't supposed to merge have ... merged! Thus forming a monster 142 times the mass of the sun. It’s a totally unexpected observation that calls...
July 30, 2020
Coronavirus : research
Better COVID-19 prevention, detection and treatment
Over just a few weeks, COVID-19 has been ‘invited’ into several research projects at UCLouvain, particularly at the Centre for Applied Molecular Technologies (CTMA), where half a dozen...
July 30, 2020
Coronavirus: research
COVID-19: detection and (de)contamination
COVID-19 has been ‘invited’ into several research projects at UCLouvain, particularly at the Centre for Applied Molecular Technologies (CTMA), where several studies or programmes related to...
July 24, 2020
Environment
Trade: tomorrow’s sustainable sectors?
How can we make global trade more sustainable? By measuring the stability and intensity of the relationships between actors in raw material supply chains and production areas. Patrick...
July 16, 2020
Environment
Radioactive fallout contamination in Europe
A high-resolution spatial map reveals the distribution of soil contamination in Europe by Caesium 137 from nuclear tests and the Chernobyl accident. It’s a radio-element harmful to health but...
July 09, 2020
Health
A stockpile of neurons in the hypothalamus!
The hypothalamus is a structure in the brain that links our nervous system to our hormonal system. The team of Prof. Frédéric Clotman traced the development of the neurons which compose it and...
June 25, 2020
The brain: less compartmentalised than expected!
What if the part of our brain that we thought was dedicated to visual information also processed other sensory information? Olivier Collignon, a neuropsychology professor, and his team...
May 25, 2020
Health
Making bacteria bilingual
Like all bacteria, streptococci ‘talk’ to each other via pheromone and sensory receptor systems. Most speak only one ‘language’. What if it was possible to make them (at least) bilingual?...
May 19, 2020
Health
A crack in E.coli’s wall
E.coli’s envelope is difficult to penetrate and frustrates those who try to find new antibiotics to fight the bacterium. Two of the envelope’s three layers are secured firmly by a lipoprotein,...
May 13, 2020
Health
Taking tumours’ breath away
For some time now researchers have been trying to neutralise a key player in the survival and multiplication of tumour cells, without much success. But today a team of researchers led by...
May 08, 2020
Staphylococcus aureus: a hibernating bacteria!
Why doesn’t Staphylococcus aureus respond to antibiotics? And why, when treatment appears to have worked and is stopped, are infection relapses frequent? To escape antibiotics and the body’s...
May 05, 2020
Health
New treatment for rare diseases
A fundamental research discovery is leading to treatments for rare diseases affecting the immune system. Patients around the world are being treated thanks to this success story authored by...
April 30, 2020
Health
‘Bacterial soldiers’ against tuberculosis?
While everyone is watching COVID-19, another lung infection continues to take its toll: tuberculosis. Dr Anandi Martin, a visiting researcher at UCLouvain, is interested in bacteriocins. These...
April 29, 2020
Health
Broad spectrum antivirals: a complicated mission … but...
Between their parasitic activity and ability to mutate, viruses are difficult to target effectively with antivirals. But scientists aren’t giving up. The team of Thomas Michiels (de Duve...
April 02, 2020
Coronavirus
Lock the door on coronavirus
How does the new coronavirus enter our cells and how do we keep it from entering? The team of David Alsteens (LIBST) will tackle these two questions with the help of state-of-the-art...
March 31, 2020
Health
The great dilemma: isolate or immunise
Modelling the impact of isolation measures is what authorities turn to when making decisions concerning COVID-19. UCLouvain researcher Emmanuel Hanert has adapted a mathematical model...
February 11, 2020
Society
Volunteering is good for your health!
Giving your time makes you feel better and keeps the doctor away! These are the results of a vast Belgian study on the benefits of volunteering led by researchers from the UCLouvain...
January 09, 2020
Health
How do cells get their vitamins?
Vitamins A, B, C, D, E, K, folic acid. You certainly know these vitamins. But have you ever heard of thiamine, also called vitamin B1? Jérôme Savocco and Sylvain Nootens and their colleagues...
Health News 2019
December 14, 2019
Health
GSK Award for Sophie Lucas’s team
On 14 December, Prof. Sophie Lucas and her team at the UCLouvain de Duve Institute received the prestigious GSK Award from the Wallonia-Brussels Federation Academy of Medicine for their...
November 28, 2019
Reoviruses: weapons against cancer?
Prof. David Alsteens recently received two scientific awards for his team's research on initial interactions between a virus and a cell – research that could one day lead to new antiviral or...
October 01, 2019
Disarm recalcitrants colorectal cancers
Cyril Corbet led the race this year: after receiving the Galen Prize for Pharmacology, he was named FNRS research associate. Quite a haul for this half-marathon enthusiast. And at the finish,...
October 04, 2019
Science and health
Paediatric palliative care: which quality of life?
Paediatric palliative care aims to improve the quality of life of critically ill children, often at the end of their lives. Preventing or relieving physical pain, treatment-related symptoms,...
September 26, 2019
Science and health
The placenta from every angle
A recent publication by UCLouvain’s Prof. Greet Kerckhofs reports on a new method for observing mouse placentas during growth: a three-dimensional, non-invasive and quantitative virtual...
September 17, 2019
Santé
Prebiotics in forgotten vegetables
On 12 September, UCLouvain Prof. Nathalie Delzenne presented FOOD4GUT’s conclusions and prospects. An interdisciplinary project funded by the Walloon Region, FOOD4GUT focuses on sustainable...
September 10, 2019
Body signals: sensing and measurement
UCLouvain researchers are shaking up research in psychology. Interoceptive awareness, the ability to feel the inner states involved in emotional experiences, may have been measured a bit too...
July 03, 2019
Science and health
Paediatric cancers: a small step towards targeted therapy
Today, cancer research is advancing by leaps and bounds for adults. Not so for children, whose cancers are much rarer. Anabelle Decottignies and her team at the de Duve Institute have found a...
June 27, 2019
Science and health
A new molecular target in the fight against cancer
On 7 May, Dr Anabelle Decottignies, a bioengineer by training, an FNRS Senior Research Associate and the head of a research team at the de Duve Institute, received the Allard-Janssen Prize in...
June 25, 2019
Genetic architecture of kidney diseases
The research of Prof. Olivier Devuyst (IREC) aims to improve the efficiency of dialysis through the study of genetic renal diseases. His work has been rewarded twice in recent weeks....
June 18, 2019
AIDS: better understanding of virus resistance
The Medical Microbiology Laboratory has acquired state-of-the-art equipment to better detect mutations in the human immunodeficiency virus, or HIV. A first in Belgium.
According to UNAIDS,...
May 14, 2019
Science and health
Bacteriocins. An alternative to antibiotics?
Bacteria are increasingly resistant to antibiotics. Today, some of these microbes are even completely impervious. The search for alternatives is urgent. Dr Johann Mignolet, visiting researcher...
April 25, 2019
Environment
Drug traces in water
Traces of drugs are in water worldwide. While the impact of such pollution on the environment and human health is still largely unknown, researchers of the Louvain4Water at UCLouvain are...
April 18, 2019
Environment
When soils filter wastewater
In Wallonia, one-tenth of domestic waste water doesn’t pass through a waste water treatment plant. Is it pollution? Not necessarily, because soils can filter and purify wastewater naturally...
March 22, 2019
Salsify experiment: nudging for better eating
UCLouvain psychology researchers have shown that nudging techniques can positively influence eating behaviours, including when it comes to increasing the consumption of a ‘forgotten’...
March 13, 2019
Environment
Oils against insects
At a time when scientists are raising the alarm over the accelerated disappearance of insects, it may seem astonishing to exhibit the results of research aimed at destroying them. But fighting...
January 29, 2019
Health
Enzymes that clean house
A Welbio team from the de Duve Institute has just published the results of a long-term research project that explains two congenital metabolic diseases characterised by a defect in neutrophils...
January 28, 2019
Health
South Africa: successful treatment of...
In 2006, South Africa experienced an tuberculosis epidemic that still leaves traces today. WHO quickly put in place recommendations to eradicate the disease. Dr Anandi Martin, a microbiologist at...
Health News 2018
December 06, 2018
Health
Half a million for vascular abnormalities
On Thursday 6 December the King Baudouin Foundation presented to Prof. Miikka Vikkula of the UCLouvain de Duve Institute the €500,000 Generet Award for Rare Diseases for his research on...
December 18, 2018
Health
Teeth for the spinal cord
Using dental stem cells to treat spinal cord injuries: that’s what Prof. Anne des Rieux, a researcher at UCLouvain's Louvain Drug Research Institute (LDRI), has initiated. This week, she presents...
November 13, 2018
Health
New monoclonal antibody in clinical development
Long-term research at UCLouvain has led to a possible new biomedicine: an anti-GARP monoclonal antibody. It may soon be clinically tested as a promising new treatment option for cancer...
October 25, 2018
Health
A universal method for immobilising proteins
A team from UCLouvain's Institute of Condensed Matter and Nanosciences has established a self-assembly method for proteins, which are complex molecules. This represents a giant leap in the...
October 12, 2018
Health
A ninth tower serves as a bridge
On 12 October, the UCLouvain campus in Woluwe will inaugurate a new multipurpose building. Built next to the Saint-Luc University Hospital, the Laennec Tower will house the Institute of...
October 11, 2018
A bacterium that preys on…bacteria
Dr Géraldine Laloux has received an ERC Starting Grant. This prestigious European funding will help her continue research on a small bacterium with an atypical life cycle....
October 11, 2018
Rhythm on the brain
Professor Sylvie Nozaradan has received an ERC Starting Grant. This prestigious European funding will help her continue her research on the brain’s perception and production of rhythms. Here’s...
October 11, 2018
Sexual reproduction: the mysteries of meiosis
Dr Corentin Claeys Bouuaert has received an ERC starting grant. This prestigious European funding will help him continue his research on the DNA biochemistry of sexual reproduction.
There...
octobre 04, 2018
Success stories du Secteur santé
Les chercheurs du Secteur des sciences de la santé de l’UCLouvain réalisent un travail formidable. Découvrez en images leurs découvertes les plus remarquables au travers des « Top health...
August 29, 2018
Benoît Desguin
Cofactors are to enzymes what tools are to workers. Benoît Desguin has discovered a new ‘tool’, a cofactor containing nickel, and intends to identify the family of enzymes that use it to...
August 20, 2018
Health
When the virus ‘velcros’ to a cell
UCLouvain researchers have discovered the essential role played by a glycoprotein present on the surface of herpesviruses. These viruses are responsible for several diseases, which...
July 31, 2018
Lipids and heart attacks
For the past five years, UCL professors Sandrine Horman and Christophe Beauloye have been studying one of the major players in thrombosis: blood platelets. Under certain conditions, they can...
June 21, 2018
Health
Stressed out staph
A mechanobiological discovery made by using an atomic force microscope creates prospects in the fight against nosocomial diseases caused by staphylococci.
Sometimes referred to as a...
March 22, 2018
Health
The secret weapons of S. salivarius
Streptococcus salivarius is a bacterium that lives peacefully in our digestive tract. A team of researchers at UCL has highlighted the communication and attack mechanisms that allow it to fight...
January 16, 2018
Health
Aggressive leukaemia
The Belgian federal government supports fundamental research by conferring Quinquennial Awards to two Belgian researchers. This year, the francophone winner was Stefan Constantinescu, a University...
March 22, 2018
Health
Preventing cardiac hypertrophy
UCL researchers have discovered a new mechanism at work in cardiac hypertrophy, which could pave the way to a more targeted treatment of this potentially harmful condition.
The least that can...
January 09, 2018
Health
Promoting appropriate prescriptions for the elderly
Many people aged 75 or older, including those in nursing and care homes and hospitals, receive inappropriate treatment. This is the research subject of Prof. Anne Spinewine, who on 12 December...
December 19, 2017
Health
A new molecule for preventing metastasis
Prof. Pierre Sonveaux and his team at the UCL Institute of Experimental and Clinical Research (IREC) identified a new molecule that can prevent metastasis. Three years ago, he had confirmed a...
December 19, 2017
Health
Weakening the defences of bacteria
Antibiotic-resistant bacterial strains are multiplying. To forestall a serious public health problem, new molecules must be developed. At the de Duve Institute, Jean-François Collet and his team...
October 19, 2017
Health
Chronic pain: a new path toward treatment?
Sufferers of chronic pain in a limb perceive the space around the limb less accurately, according to a study by Lieve Filbrich and Valéry Legrain, researchers at the UCL Institute of Neuroscience....
July 11, 2017
Antibiotics and cystic fibrosis: a good idea?
UCL researchers have made the troubling discovery that macrolides, the antibiotics frequently prescribed to sufferers of cystic fibrosis, foster resistance in Pseudomonas aeruginosa....
August 29, 2017
Inside the brain of the profoundly deaf
The brain is divided into areas, each of which processes specific information. If a certain type of information is missing – such as sounds – the brain reorganises itself... but not at random!...
August 04, 2017
Face grafting: a fast-evolving field at UCL
For over ten years, facial reconstruction has been a central area of interest for UCL researchers. Their objective is to develop innovative techniques to adapt as closely as possible to the...
June 22, 2017
A better understanding of melanoma’s mechanisms
Anabelle Decottignies’s team just discovered that melanoma doesn’t develop like most cancers, making it more difficult to treat.
For more than 15 years, Anabelle Decottignies, FNRS Research...
May 18, 2017
The missing antioxidant
A team of UCL researchers recently discovered the function of Nit1, a metabolic repair enzyme. A lack of it could cause a metabolic disorder.
Our cells use oxygen to burn sugars and fat in...
June 06, 2017
Using PET scans to improve Hodgkin’s lymphoma treatment
Using a PET scan to analyse a tumour leads to better treatment of Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the white blood cells known as lymphocytes. The technique has been studied and validated by the...
May 11, 2017
Antibiotics: What are the effects on baby mice?
Does being treated with antibiotics early in life have an impact in adulthood? That’s the question Sophie Leclercq tried to answer by observing the behaviour of mice exposed in utero to...
February 22, 2017
More accurate MRIs: coming soon?
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), already an very effective technology, could soon become even more precise. The MCube H2020 project is working toward more accurate diagnoses.
We tend to forget...
February 10, 2017
Myocardial infarction: how to prevent a second heart attack
One-quarter of the 10,000 heart attacks per year in Belgium are followed by a second one. That figure drove the Fondation Louvain (Louvain Foundation) to launch the Cardio fundraising campaign for...
February 10, 2017
IT Targets: advancing cancer immunotherapy
Over the past five years all hopes for combatting cancer have turned to immunotherapy. The IT Targets project is doing its part by targeting GPCR proteins.
On paper immunotherapy is...
When bacteria fight back
Some bacteria that cause disease in humans are becoming more resistant to antobiotics—so resistant that some experts see ‘antibiotic resistant’ infections as tomorrow’s plague. Fortunately,...
January 17, 2017
Safer restoration of female fertility after cancer: the...
Cancer treatment can save your life; it can also make you infertile. UCL pioneered post-cancer female fertility restoration by freezing ovarian tissue prior to treatment and subsequently...
November 10, 2016
Towards a treatment for venous malformation?
Angiomas, vascular malformations that can provoke numerous symptoms, afflict approximately 6,000 people in Belgium. For 20 years, Dr Laurence Boon, coordinator of the Centre for Vascular Anomalies...
June 28, 2016
Adolescent depression: Can mindfulness prevent it?
Adolescents are of course not immune to feeling blue or even depressed. Researchers are betting on mindfulness as a means of prevention, especially at UCL, a pioneer of child mindfulness. Prof....
May 13, 2016
Bacterial biofilms under the microscope
Many infections contracted in hospital are linked to the formation of biofilms. How do these sticky layers of bacteria form on the surface of some medical devices? Can we counteract them? At UCL,...
May 13, 2016
Health and undocumented immigrants: a social conundrum
Personal opinions and politics aside, the presence in Belgium of undocumented migrants raises the delicate question of their access to health care. Researchers at the UCL Institute of Health and...
April 25, 2016
MammoNote: facilitating diagnosis of breast cancer
Breast cancer afflicts one in eight Belgian women. Early detection increases the chance of survival, thus screening is recommended. The Mammotest screening programme was introduced in Belgium and...
April 25, 2016
A treatment for heart failure?
One in five people suffer from heart failure: the heart fails to pump blood correctly. This eventually leads to death, but UCL researchers and doctors may have found a treatment.
The heart is a...
April 20, 2016
What happens in the mind of an anxiety sufferer?
In Belgium, between 7 and 10% of the population suffers from anxiety disorder (AD). What exactly goes on in their minds?
There are different types of AD: phobias, OCDs, generalised...
April 07, 2016
Immunotherapy: arming the body against cancer
Immunotherapy is one of the most promising treatments for certain cancers. At UCL, several research teams are studying our immune mechanisms to find new treatments.
Every day our bodies...
January 05, 2016
Examining molecular mechanisms to target treatments more...
A cell’s surface is made of a lipid membrane that contains many receptors. They can send signals from outside to the cell interior, sometimes to adverse effect, such as inflammation. Numerous...
January 24, 2017
Robots that help doctors
Medical robotics and related technologies are booming. At UCL, engineers and doctors are working together to meet the technical, human, ethical and financial challenges of future medical practice....
January 24, 2017
Disasters: robots to the rescue
Imagine an earthquake or nuclear accident disaster area where it’s impossible to send in rescuers without putting their lives at risk. At UCL, Nicolas Van der Noot is looking to robots to do the...
January 24, 2017
From the lab to the hospital: medical robotics, a team...
Exoskeletons, microsurgery robots, robotic prostheses—robotics and the medical sector have never complemented each other so well. In 2014, UCL created Louvain Bionics, a centre of expertise unique...
December 05, 2016
Actualités
When bacteria fight back
Some bacteria that cause disease in humans are becoming more resistant to antobiotics—so resistant that some experts see ‘antibiotic resistant’ infections as tomorrow’s plague. Fortunately,...
August 11, 2016
How emotional intelligence can make you healthier
Being able to identify, understand, express, manage and use our emotions helps us in so many facets of our lives. According to a recent UCL study, emotional intelligence (EI) can even improve your...
March 22, 2017
Nisha Limaye awarded the Prix Lambertine Lacroix for...
Nisha Limaye’s work on the signalling pathway involved in 80% of venous malformation cases not only won her a prize but has created new treatment possibilities.
Every four years the Prix...
January 31, 2017
Obesity and bacteria: In gut we trust
Humanity faces an unprecedented epidemic of obesity, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. Intestinal bacteria and their dialogue with the immune system have something to do with it.
We have...
June 28, 2016
Better big data analysis for better epidemic management
Using big data to precisely and easily predict an epidemic’s course or a virus’s spread—that’s the seemingly incredible goal of Jean-Charles Delvenne, a researcher at the Mathematical Engineering...
April 27, 2016
IgGreen, for the most ethical pharmacological proteins
Using plant cells to produce diagnostic and pharmacological proteins—that’s the challenge taken up by the researchers at IgGreen, a funding recipient of UCL’s ‘First Spin-off’ programme. IgGreen’s...
April 25, 2016
Senegal: using big data to anticipate food shortages
Four young researchers of the Environmetrics and Geomatics Laboratory, led by Prof. Pierre Defourny of the UCL Earth and Life Institute, have been recognised by the Massachusetts Institute of...
April 04, 2017
What controls body movement?
Gaining a thorough understanding of the mechanisms that initiate and inhibit body movements can lead to new treatments for diseases that disrupt them, such as Parkinson’s disease and Tourette...
April 07, 2017
Pomegranate for muscle loss?
UCL researchers have discovered that urolithin B, a substance derived from pomegranate peel, slows the loss of muscle mass. The discovery could lead to a new treatment.
Muscle is the most...
April 11, 2017
An anti-adhesive treatment to fight staphylococcus aureus
A team led by Professor Yves Dufrêne of UCL’s Institute of Life Sciences, in collaboration with Trinity College Dublin, recently discovered a molecule that can prevent a huge problem for hospitals...
March 23, 2017
Tuberculosis: Where do we stand?
In Belgium, 1,000 cases of tuberculosis are reported each year. On the occasion of World TB Day, 24 March, we ask where UCL tuberculosis research stands.
Tuberculosis is far from disappearing....
January 31, 2017
Bacteria and bleach: all-out war
UCL de Duve Institute researchers discovered that bacteria have a defence against our immune system’s bleach. Could this lead to new antibiotics?
To defend itself against the many attacks to...
January 31, 2017
Using electricity to treat the effects of CVA
Most people who survive a cerebrovascular accident (CVA) suffer impaired motor skills. UCL researchers may have found a way to boost their ability to relearn them.
Like all our organs,...
2020
January 09, 2020
Health
How do cells get their vitamins?
Vitamins A, B, C, D, E, K, folic acid. You certainly know these vitamins. But have you ever heard of thiamine, also called vitamin B1? Jérôme Savocco and Sylvain Nootens and their colleagues...