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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...

Op onze blog vindt u inhoud samengesteld door de VIB-gemeenschap. Ontdek ons onderzoek door de ogen van onze wetenschappers.

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An interview with Prof. Thomas Voets for Pain Awareness Month

Turning up the heat on pain research

Most of us are familiar with the painful, eye-watering sensation that comes with taking a bite out of a red hot chili pepper. But what puts the kick in these chilies?

Bringing together Flemish expertise to accelerate the development of precision medicine for Alzheimer’s disease. 

The PRISMA consortium

Alzheimer’s disease is the world’s leading cause of dementia as it accounts for up to 80% of dementia cases. Alzheimer’s disease is the result of a complex interplay of both genetic and environmental factors, but it remains poorly understood to this day. The PRISMA consortium has the ambition to create new insights about the disease by answering the following questions:

New lab will study the development of emotional circuit neurons

Esther Klingler joins CBD as a new PI

We welcome Esther Klingler as a new group leader at the VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain & Disease Research and professor at the Department of Neurosciences at KU Leuven. Esther will also be a member of the Leuven Brain Institute. Esther will move from Switzerland to Leuven to start her lab, which will study the developmental trajectories of emotional circuit neurons. We caught up with Esther during these busy times to get to know her.

Ludo Van Den Bosch (left), Philip Van Damme (center), and Sandrine Da Cruz (right), ALS researchers at the VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain & Disease research

LEUCALS: Meet the Labs working together to fight ALS

Ludo Van Den Bosch (left), Philip Van Damme (center), and Sandrine Da Cruz (right), ALS researchers at the VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain &...

Bringing Scientific & Clinical Expertise Together to Tackle ALS

Between Bench and Bedside

ALS (or Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis) became a household name in 2014 when the Ice Bucket Challenge took the internet by storm almost a decade ago, making a massive impact in raising awareness of and accelerating the fight against the disease. In this devastating disorder, motor neurons – cells in the central and peripheral nervous system that transmit signals to make muscles work – degenerate, leading to muscle weakness and wasting that gets worse over time. Despite significant increases in research funding and efforts, effective treatments for ALS are still lacking. Most people die between 2-5 years of disease onset.

An interview with VIB's newest group leader

Emanuela Pasciuto: making an impact in neuroimmunology

Emanuela Pasciuto starts her first lab of Neuroimmunology at the VIB-UAntwerp Center for Molecular Neurology in April 2023. I sat down with her in a cozy meeting room at the VIB-KU Leuven Center for Brain & Disease Research and interviewed her about her vision for it.

Betting on computational neuroscience

Pedro Gonçalves joins NERF as a new PI

We welcome Pedro Gonçalves as a new group leader at NERF (empowered by imec, VIB, and KU Leuven). The Portuguese scientist will move from Germany to Leuven to start his Lab of Computational Neuroscience. He is actively seeking postdoctoral candidates and PhD students to join his team and collaborate on developing and applying machine learning methods to obtain mechanistic insights in neuroscience. We caught up with him during these busy times to get to know him.

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.

Neurodegenerative diseases – such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's – affect more people worldwide than cancer. Yet even though scientists have been studying these diseases for decades, telling the difference between them on a biological level is still a challenge.

Neurodegeneration Cell by Cell

Neurodegenerative diseases – such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's – affect more people worldwide than cancer. Yet even though scientists have been...

Reaching new peaks in neurodegenerative research

The rise of Muna Therapeutics

As every seasoned mountaineer will tell you, to see the highest peak you sometimes need to make it through the foothills. The same is true for science and especially when investigating neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and dementia. Whereas research fields such as oncology have made incredible strides in investigating the mechanisms behind various types of cancer, research on neurodegenerative diseases today is still a somewhat underappreciated field of study.

An interview with a patient and the researchers studying her disease

The woman and science behind an incurable disease

This blog post is part of VIB Neuroscience in the spotlight.

Neuroscience