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Byteflies: virtual care solutions for all

Byteflies is on a mission to make virtual care available to all. The Belgian company has developed a platform for remote patient monitoring solutions, to save precious time for healthcare providers, reduce hospitalization costs, and boost the quality of life for patients. The aim is to aid the transition from fragmented to connected healthcare, enabling a continuum of care through virtual solutions.

Corteria: a new strategy and approach to treating heart failure

Corteria Pharmaceuticals is developing transformative therapies for heart failure subpopulations most likely to benefit from the company’s novel cardiorenal treatments. The company was founded in 2021 by Sanofi’s former head of cardiovascular research, Philip Janiak, and Marie-Laure Ozoux, former cardiovascular project leader at Sanofi.

CoMoveIT: patient-driven mobility solutions for people with complex movement disorders

CoMoveIT is a striking example of how visionary ideas can be turned into life-changing innovations once the right technology becomes available. We spoke with CoMoveIT’s CTO, Sotirios Gakopoulos, about the Belgian company’s unique solution to improve the mobility of patients with complex movement disorders, like cerebral palsy.

Data science: empowering animal-free progress in preclinical development

Many drugs fail clinical trials, often because preclinical animal models fall short of replicating human physiology. To improve animal welfare, speed up drug development, and reduce costs, we need to rely less on animal models, while also minimizing the number of failures early in the drug development process. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are powerful tools that can help us achieve these goals by predicting a drug's efficacy, safety, and uptake in preclinical studies. These technologies can help researchers to make informed decisions and optimize testing strategies, improving drug development for both animals and people.

eureKARE stimulates synthetic biology start-ups with studio in Belgium

With its network of thematic SynBio Studios, investment company eureKARE is boosting the creation of new European start-ups in synthetic biology. Its first EU studio is located in Brussels and focuses on biomedical applications. Things are moving fast, and the studio has already welcomed two companies onboard.

Dosing flash radiation for the future of cancer treatment

Flash radiation has the potential to become a revolution in radiation therapy. An incredibly promising cancer treatment that limits the damage to surrounding tissue, it is currently in the pre-clinical stage. MEDVIA-funded project eFlash2D is working to assure that dosing is ready when flash radiation enters clinical trials.

Femtech: Breaking barriers in women’s health through innovation and investment

Femtech is a growing field that has rapidly expanded from niche market to global ecosystem. From period-tracking apps and smart pelvic floor trainers to wearable breast pumps – both start-ups and well-established multinationals are prioritizing tech innovation in women’s health. But are investors keeping up with this trend, or is the strong gender skew in venture capital hampering the femtech field?

Data science – taking clinical drug development to the next level

Clinical drug development is a challenging endeavor, but help is at hand! From trial site selection, to patient recruitment, to endpoint characterization – data science integration can help to overcome bottlenecks and improve efficiency in clinical development by generating unique insights to help guide study design and operations. For this strategy to be used to its full potential in Belgium, local partners should optimize data governance and quality, and improve collaboration. This would help the country maintain its status as a leading location for clinical trials.

Brewing up a new business: AB InBev surprises with ambitions for animal-free proteins

Belgian-American AB InBev, the world's largest brewer, has set up a separate R&D division called BioBrew to develop animal-free proteins using precision fermentation. Quite a number of companies are already focused on producing alternative proteins, which don’t cause harm to animals and are more sustainable, but they generally lack the capacity to produce them on a commercial level. This is one of the things that sets BioBrew apart, thanks to AB InBev’s knowhow of using yeast fermentation on a large scale to make beer.

Energizing the transition: ACROBAT consortium devises smart and sustainable ways to recycle LFP batteries

Batteries are a crucial component of the energy transition away from fossil fuels, but the technology currently faces issues with sustainable recycling methods, which are vital for recuperating the rare raw materials inside the power cells. The European ACROBAT consortium, led by Flemish research center VITO, is tackling this issue specifically for LFP batteries – a type of lithium-ion batteries that are steadily growing in importance, including for electric cars.

The chaos of choice: how do people pick their food products?

Every family needs groceries, and most people regularly venture to the supermarket to gather supplies. If researchers can help shoppers make healthier choices, we can improve the obesity problem in a simple yet effective way. But until recently, nobody really understood what motivated people to choose certain products – we knew what they bought, but not why. We’ve therefore investigated shoppers’ choice strategies, hoping to use this information to help people choose healthier.

Great at small things: BCCM stores microorganisms, plasmids, hybridomas, and more!

BCCM is a Belgian non-profit consortium of seven biological resource centers preserving and distributing microbial and genetic resources, offering storage and scientific services for both academia and industry. These world-class collections are exceptional in terms of the number and variety of specimens and excellent quality control. BCCM’s confidential deposit services are a great way for companies to store genetic material and microorganisms for safety or patent purposes, including hybridomas and other cell lines.

Stew before you chew – why the way you cook pulses makes a difference to your nutrition

Do you look at the composition or caloric content of foods to make healthy choices? In healthy foods, not only the nutritional composition is important, but also how those nutrients are digested. Our research on pulses – such as beans, chickpeas, and lentils – showed that the way in which pulses are prepared determines how nutrients will be released in our bodies during digestion. To understand this, we need to look at pulses under the microscope.

New personalized cancer vaccine in the making thanks to unique Belgian collaboration

The young Belgian start-up Persomed is unique – it was founded in 2020 by four partners each with relevant expertise in the personalized immunotherapy field: myNEO, QbD Group, Antleron, and the VUB. Together, the multidisciplinary strength and expertise has resulted in the development of Persomed’s cutting-edge technology platform for personalized cancer treatments. The organization is now at crucial point, raising funds to initiate a clinical trial phase I in a first, urgent-medical-need indication: metastatic colorectal cancer.

Marfan patients team up with researchers to catch their silent killer

The world’s undiagnosed Marfan patients often go through life unaware of the hidden killer lurking in their DNA – a gene variant which may lead to sudden death at any moment via an aortic dissection. Currently, there is no therapy available to counteract this disastrous aortic event, so patient awareness of their condition is key to prevention. To learn more about Marfan syndrome and improve diagnosis, our project needs patients to enroll online in our research cohort. In this way, patients themselves can help us contribute to new therapies and avert sudden deaths.