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VIB Blog

On our blog, you can find content curated by the VIB community. Discover our research through the eyes of our scientists.Want to be kept...

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After 27 years leading our HR department, Marijke Lein is retiring. She's handing over the reins to Veerle Bogaert, who's spending April alongside Marijke to learn the intricacies of our organization. We sat down with Marijke to discuss the organization's evolution, from its inception to now, and VIB’s enduring values. Meanwhile, we also look toward the future with Veerle.

Passing the torch: reflections and visions for HR at VIB

After 27 years leading our HR department, Marijke Lein is retiring. She's handing over the reins to Veerle Bogaert, who's spending April...

Relive the best stories of 2023 with our editor's pick

VIB's top stories: the year in review

From groundbreaking scientific discoveries to inspiring moments of innovation, join us in celebrating 2023 at VIB through our editor's pick of the Top 10 Stories.

Volunteering with IPBO in Kenya

Here are the volunteers' experiences

Looking for a way to make a positive impact on sustainable agriculture? Meet IPBO, or the UGent-VIB International Plant Biotechnology Outreach organization. IPBO is a VIB team with a mission to promote advances in agriculture and improve collaboration between African and Belgian organizations.

“Turning an idea into reality is an immensely rewarding experience”

Dr. Melanie Matheu, founder of Prellis Biologics, receives the 2023 VIB Alumni Award

On to its fourth edition, the VIB Alumni Award recognizes members of the VIB community who have gone on to make an extraordinary impact on society. Dr. Melanie Matheu definitely meets that description: after a PhD and two postdocs at UC Irvine, VIB, and UCSF, she founded Prellis, a startup developing ultrafast technology for high-resolution 3D bioprinting. In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the company put its full weight into developing human SARS-CoV-2 antibodies using their EXIS™ platform to create lymph node organoids.

Striving to professionalize new life sciences technologies

VIB Technologies: a paradigm shift for future-proof life sciences research

This blog post is part of the VIB Technologies campaign.

Christine Van Broeckhoven: pioneer in many fields

Becoming the role model she didn’t have

Christine Van Broeckhoven is a world authority in genetic research into Alzheimer’s disease, the most common form of dementia. Her passion and drive have made indispensable contributions to understanding the disease and led to much recognition at home and abroad. In 2006, she received the L’Oréal/Unesco Prize for the best female scientist in Europe, and in 2020 she was one of the 50 Most Inspiring Women in Tech in Belgium. The awards recognize exceptional female researchers who have contributed to the advancement of science or technology. Written in Christine’s name, it seems. We look back with her on her pioneering role as a top female scientist.

An interview with Pierre Vanderhaeghen, Rosa Rademakers, and Ludo Van Den Bosch, three consecutive winners of the Generet Award

Research into rare diseases

The Generet award, managed by the King Baudouin Foundation, is the biggest prize for rare diseases in Belgium and Europe. This year’s winner is Ludo Van Den Bosch for his research on ALS. In the previous two years, the award has gone to Pierre Vanderhaeghen and Rosa Rademakers for their work on the (mis)development of the human brain and research into frontotemporal dementia, respectively. That’s three in a row for VIB. We talked to the three neuroscientists about their passion for research, what they’ve accomplished or plan to accomplish with the one-million-euro prize, and the difficulties they face when working on rare diseases.

2022 Wrapped

Discover our top 10 stories of 2022

25/8 - Scientists and clinicians from leading life sciences institute VIB, Harvard University, the Atrium Health Levine Children’s Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital have managed to halt disease progression in terminally ill medulloblastoma patients. The development was based on research of Peter Carmeliet and Rakesh Jain. A monoclonal antibody, TB-403, was well tolerated and able to halt tumor growth in 7 out of 11 patients, of which more than half remained stable in their disease for longer than 100 days. The results of this study are promising and prompt further research to develop new therapeutic options for this disease with a high mortality rate.

On the eve of the 2nd edition of the VIB Conference on Emerging Applications in Microbes, VIB alumni reconnected with their former colleagues in Leuven to catch up over science and beer.

Catching up with VIB scientists all across the world

On the eve of the 2nd edition of the VIB Conference on Emerging Applications in Microbes, VIB alumni reconnected with their former colleagues in...

On 13 October, Flemish minister of Innovation Hilde Crevits handed over the VIB Alumni Award for Societal Impact to Dr. Rafael Van den Bergh. The jury panel expressed their admiration for Rafael’s work and commitment as a former field epidemiologist and implementation scientist at Médecins Sans Frontières and more recently as research coordinator for the WHO Attacks on Health Care Initiative.

VIB alumnus Rafael Van den Bergh bridges the implementation gap

According to the jury report, ‘Rafael has spent in the last 10 years more than 25% of his time abroad, in low-resource settings and countries in crisis with risk for his own life, showing his altruistic attitude. He is in that sense a role model and shows a high societal engagement.’

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