RNA, or ribonucleic acid, was long seen as a mere messenger between DNA and proteins. Today, however, we know RNA does far more than that. It is an exceptionally useful instrument and the target of new treatments in the pipeline. OncoRNALab researchers have now compiled the most comprehensive ‘RNA encyclopaedia’ in the world.
Every year, the City of Ghent organises the election of Student of the Year to mark the festive end of the academic year. This year exceptionally 2 extra laureates, both of them from Ghent University, were chosen. Meet Emma and Nicolas.
Summer schools help children and young people with learning disadvantages. But because of the corona crisis, pupils are struggling with more intense learning problems, and on top of that their mental resilience has been weakened. How can summer schools respond to this?
Where can you find the smartest students? That’s the ultimate question in the Campus Cup, which switched from Canvas to channel Eén for its third edition. Six different teams from Ghent University took part, and the team from Applied Linguistics in the Faculty of Arts and Philosophy went all the way to the semi-final. Here’s more about the students’ experience.
Remarkably, work that started as an occasional side project has resulted this year in a change to European law. Thanks to Liesbeth Jacxsens and Mieke Uyttendaele, more food can now be donated to those in need.
In the simplest terms, health is the sum total of the effect of genes, behaviour, and surroundings. But of course we can’t just change our genes. So, if we want to avoid getting ill, it’s more productive to consider our behaviour and our surroundings as they are the things we can influence. Ghent University, KU Leuven, the University of Antwerp and Hasselt University are pooling their expertise in the first large scale ‘exposome’ research project in Flanders.
What is feminism? Ask feminists of different generations and you will get a different answer. Equally, the way feminists are viewed has also evolved. A conversation about the importance of gender, inclusiveness and the future of feminism.
How to use waste water, CO2 and plastics as a source of energy or a raw material? This is one of the key questions that keeps professor Korneel Rabaey occupied on a daily basis. A question to which he is now seeing an answer emerge, thanks to the new research platform CAPTURE, which he helped to conceive. The opening of a physical research centre will accelerate progress in this area considerably, which has been his goal for years.
Ghent University uses about 260.000 m³ water annually, of which 92% is high-quality tap water. This needs to change. Ghent University is going to instigate the necessary adjustments based on a new policy on circular water management – and a break-away from traditional techniques. This is why, since 12 May 2021, there’s a wastewater treatment facility at Site Heymans in Ghent, Belgium based on water plants and bacteria: a constructed wetland.
Doctoral students Elaheh Niazi from Iran and David Gleerup from Denmark arrived in Ghent around the beginning of the second lockdown. Although they have already been here for several months, they have actually hardly seen the city, or even colleagues.
After a highly unusual academic year, exams will soon start again. We asked some students what ultimate tips they have to get through this period.
Some limits are clear. But others depend on the individual. What others consider normal, you may experience as transgressing, or vice versa. Where you draw the line is up to you.
