Videos

A personal data breach is not to be taken lightly: it can lead to depression, divorce, and even death. Seems far-fetched? Not really, as the data breach of a Canadian adultery website showed in 2015. Lina Jasmontaite (VUB) researches how companies (should) handle data breaches in Europe, since the introduction of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). 

Over the past five years, solid progress has been made in the fight against cancer, but unfortunately, that does not apply to pancreatic cancer. So what makes this cancer so hard to beat? Olaya Lara (VUB) explains this by comparing it to a football match. She also tells you what tactics she figures out to sideline xCT, the Lionel Messi in the pancreatic cancer team. 

The fight against breast cancer does not stop with overcoming cancer. 1 in 3 women continue to experience pain symptoms even during a harmless activity such as cycling. Physiotherapist Eva Roose (VUB) wants to help these breast cancer survivors reset their pain alarms.

The corona pandemic, the energy crisis, the new nitrogen policy, ... Our farmers are having a hard time lately. How do farmers best face such challenges so that they can continue to produce the food on our plates? That is what Isabeau Coopmans investigated in her PhD through surveys and interviews with farmers.

Developing new drugs often requires a lot of animal testing. But what if we could develop drugs with fewer laboratory animals? That is what Lianne van Os is doing. Based on 1 mouse liver, she makes some 600 mini-livers in the lab to test new drugs against liver disease.

You all know the story of the frog prince, but we bet you haven't yet heard this "sticky" version by evolutionary biologist Shabnam Zaman... She is researching frog glue, a defense mechanism found in certain frog species, that could one day help you 🐸 Watch the video - we're pretty sure you will be glued to your screen. 

"Freeze your eggs, free your career". This was the headline on the cover of the business magazine Bloomberg Business a few years ago. The reasoning: women could freeze their eggs, to focus on their careers and then maybe have a child later. Sounds good for women's emancipation, but how do women themselves feel about it? Philosopher Michiel De Proost sat down with 21 women to find out.

We've all seen images of spectacular collapses of large structures, such as the Morandi Bridge in Genoa. What if we could prevent the failure of structures such as bridges, dams, and wind turbines by ... listening to these structures? That's exactly what engineer Maximillian Weil (VUB) is working on. Listen to him talk about good vibrations.

Heart disease is the leading cause of death worldwide. One out of 4 people dies from it. To improve treatment options for patients suffering from heart disease, mechanical engineer Mathias Peirlinck develops digital twins of patient hearts. Digital what? Watch Mathias (and his digital twin) explain it in this video.

Worldwide, 6 million people suffer from inherited visual disorders. And today, no treatment is available yet. Pietro De Angeli is one of the scientists that try to tackle this kind of disease at its roots: the genes. Because these inherited visual disorders arise due to defects in the genes. De Angeli is trying to find a unique, safe & effective therapeutic approach to correct genetic defects.

Did you know that one in 10,000 people worldwide suffer from an inherited retinal disease, such as Stargardt disease, and lose sight? Stargardt disease is caused by a fault in a specific gene, called ABCA4, and to this date it is incurable. To change this, Munnever Burcu and 13 other researchers with different backgrounds working all over Europe joined forces in the StarT Consortium. Their goal is to find a cure by investigating the disease from different angles. Burcu explains how they want to approach this.

Have you ever heard of Stargardt disease? This is a rare, inherited disease that can cause severe damage to the retina of your eye. When that happens, it can lead to partial or complete blindness. This can affect children or can arise in early adulthood. To tackle this disease, as well as other inherited retinal diseases, PhD researcher Melita Kaltak focuses her efforts on mutations in the mRNA. The goal is to develop novel RNA therapies, specific to each patient, as she explains in this video