Overmatig zweten lijkt een banaal kwaaltje, maar dat is het allerminst. Voor miljoenen mensen wereldwijd heeft hyperhidrose een grote impact op hun levenskwaliteit. Nieuw onderzoek werpt een compleet nieuw licht op de aandoening.
Ghent University veterinary medicine student Kaat De Haeck (26) walked 100 kilometres to support the Parkinson’s Research Fund. By taking part in the Dodentocht, a 100-kilometre walking challenge, she raised €2,000.
You may know her from her cookbooks, blog, or Instagram channel Karola’s Kitchen. But before her career as an author and food blogger, Karolien Olaerts studied biomedical sciences at Ghent University. On campus Rommelaere, she looks back on her student days.
We asked neurologist Kristl Vonck how she views the impact of AI on our brains. What happens to our brain when we systematically outsource thinking to an algorithm?
We asked philosopher Ignaas Devisch to share his thoughts on how we should deal with AI. He revisits Descartes’ thought experiment.
January often starts with good intentions… but those plans can be quickly abandoned. To exercise more is always high up everyone’s list, but there’s often a gap between wanting to do it and actually doing it. So how do you bridge that gap?
A recent study into Parkinson’s disease has shown that a stool transplant may constitute a new and valuable treatment of the disease. “It offers a potentially safe, effective and cost-efficient way of alleviating the symptoms and improving the quality of life of millions. A 'bacterial pill' might replace the stool transplant in the future. But more research is needed.”
Twenty years ago, he was ridiculed as a scientist when he tried to communicate with the general public. Now, Ignaas Devisch is receiving the Science Communication Career Award for it. "It's wonderful recognition," says the medical philosopher. "Although communicating about science also involves learning to listen well."
What if, after graduating with a degree in medicine, you chose not to take the safe path, but to venture into the unknown? Ghent University alumnus Serhat Yildirim moved from Ghent to Harvard in the United States with a Fayat scholarship, where he discovered that the world was much bigger than what he had known back home.
Around 8% of the world’s population suffers from a rare disease. In Belgium some 800,000 patients are affected. One of them is eighteen-month-old Oliver, who was born blind. He is closely monitored by professor Bart Leroy, whose team has made remarkable progress in the research into rare eye diseases. Still, there are quite a few stumbling blocks as well.
Ghent University alumni Rik and Bea wanted to celebrate their most recent birthday with a big party and they had a very clear gift preference: No flowers or chocolates, they wrote in the invitation, but a donation to the Marleen Temmerman Fund of Ghent University. Their fundraising initiative brought in close to €5,000 for the Fund.
In 2023, one in five Belgians was prescribed sleep medication, making Belgium the European leader. “Many people see a sleeping pill as an innocent thing,” says GP and clinical pharmacologist Ellen Van Leeuwen, “but sleeping pills are not sweets.”
