Do you change your underwear every day? The chances are that you do. Did you know that this is actually unnecessary? Less laundry but more targeted, that’s the message from Ghent University researcher Chris Callewaert.
What if patients and doctors don't understand each other? With that as a starting point, 45 students set to work to come up with innovative solutions during Comon's Makers Marathon. Speech therapy student Emma is one of those students. Together with her team, she came up with Dolox, a smart device that registers physical pain at the moment you experience pain.
Cysticercosis is a little-known disease, which can lead to epilepsy and much worse. Annually, it causes the death of 28,000 people. Particularly in Africa, although it is discovered here too on some occasions. Pork tapeworm is the culprit. Professor Sarah Gabriël and her team are tackling this tapeworm and the havoc it causes. “However, everything depends on the governments’ resources and priorities.”
A corona test that’s as quick and easy as an alcohol breathalyser: it will soon be possible. Researchers at imec-MICT-UGent have been involved in creating a user-friendly device that should be ready for use by the summer.
Are soft drinks really that bad for your teeth? What about the eternal debate about electric versus manual toothbrushes? And is flossing the answer? Dentistry professor Luc Martens - who's had no cavities for several decades himself - has tips to keep your teeth free of holes.
Bacteria may be able to protect us from chronic lung disease. The best news of all? These bacteria can be found in our lungs. This discovery has already attracted international attention and may lead to new treatment.
The medical field is on the verge of a revolution, all thanks to... light. Medical devices will soon become so small and inexpensive that they will become part of everyday equipment. The driving force behind this technological revolution is photonics. ‘It is the fastest growing ‘‘enabling” technology we know’, says Roel Baets, head of the Photonics Research Group.
Researchers at Ghent University (UGent) have discovered enzymes that can cure age- and diabetes-related blindness. Nearly 200 million people worldwide suffer from these diseases. Thanks to financial support from one UGent alumnus and the Industrial Research Fund (IOF), the researchers are now working on eye drops made using these enzymes.
It is always important to protect your skin from the sun’s harmful rays, but even more so in the summer. But what kind of sun cream is it best to use?
No, it’s not futuristic fiction: a contact lens with technology that imitates the effect of the human iris. It’s a hi-tech accomplishment that Ghent University and imec will now market: the spin-off Azalea Vision will continue developing and commercialising the contact lens.
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.
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.
