Videos

Did you know the largest green spaces in Flanders aren't all forests or protected nature? It's the private gardens, which together cover more than 12% of the region. Imagine if those gardens could help protect us from extreme weather, including the heat stress we're experiencing these days. Unfortunately, most gardens aren't designed to do that. Too much pavement, closely mown lawns, and too few trees limit their potential to cool our surroundings, absorb rainwater, and support biodiversity. Researcher Janne Teerlinck is exploring how we can change that.

Making chocolate mousse or mayonnaise without animal proteins? It’s perfectly possible using plant-based proteins, such as those from faba beans. However, these proteins can be rather capricious: some are ideal for a light and airy mousse, whilst others are better suited to a thick mayonnaise. Nutrition scientist Elia Veirman is investigating how factors such as variety and weather conditions influence protein formation. This will enable farmers to predict what their harvest is suitable for.

Too many lives are lost to cancer because it’s found too late. Current detection methods are slow, costly, and sometimes unreliable. But what if our blood holds the key? Researcher Ehsan Mohammadi (VITO - KU Leuven - imec) is exploring how tiny particles released by our cells can signal early signs of cancer.

Did you know that the data from your sports watch can help detect heart disease? Every day, millions of pieces of health data are collected in Belgium: from your movement and heart rate to your sleep quality and blood pressure. This data is gathered via smartphones, sports watches, and doctors, but often remains fragmented and unused. Via 'We Are', a secure online platform, you can consciously connect and share your health data, as researcher Cato van Schyndel explains.

"Leave it to the experts. You don't understand the technical stuff." A thought city planners sometimes have. But urban designer and researcher Jan Lim (KU Leuven) argues for something different: meaningful citizen involvement. "City planning isn't just technical. It's also political... These choices shape the kind of city we live in. So citizens need to talk about them."

As cities grow, getting enough food to everyone becomes a bigger challenge, especially in fast-developing places.In places like Kampala, Uganda, reaching markets is a challenge due to inadequate infrastructure and traffic. Lisa-Marie Hemerijckx (KU Leuven) studies how people in fast-growing cities access food, to help planners improve food availability and make urban growth more sustainable.

Will a miniature device implanted in the brain help stroke survivors in their recovery? That is what Ugur Kilic (KU Leuven - FWO) researches in her PhD. Find out more in this video!

Jasper Smet is working (out) in the lab: he wants to grow 3D human muscles to help those with muscle diseases and injuries. By piecing together tiny muscle sections in the lab, he aims to create realistic human muscle models. These could be used to unravel how muscles work, test the effect of drugs, and one day perform transplants in people with severe muscle injuries. Muscle up!

Did you know that growing up, one in four children worldwide experience a traumatic dental injury? Current treatments for these injuries aren't optimal, nor long-lasting, and render the tooth brittle, leading to possible tooth loss. But what if teeth could heal themselves? That's what Una Ivkovic sinks her teeth into: a hydrogel that guides stem cells to the injury to generate new dental tissue and restore the damaged tooth 🦷