Discovery and research, Industrial application, Technology and digital innovation

A world where we can 3D bioprint organs on demand is creeping ever closer to clinical reality, thanks to Belgian efforts to standardize the biomaterials necessary. Achieving this will have profound consequences for organ transplants, disease modeling, tissue engineering, personalized medicine, and drug discovery. But bioprinting success depends on multidisciplinary collaborations between material scientists, hardware manufacturers, clinicians, and other partners. Recently, these collaborations have reached the stratosphere, with a project to study cardiovascular aging with a heart-on-a-chip… in space!
Cervical cancer is largely curable if detected early enough and yet it remains a leading cause of death in women globally. Why? Although researchers recently made the biggest improvement in cervical cancer treatment in more than 20 years, cutting the risk of death by over 40%, effective and inclusive screening remains crucial for early detection and treatment. However, recent research from Belgium suggests that certain populations of vulnerable women or those with a migration background are falling through the cervical cancer screening cracks.
Data science is vastly changing the way we do research. Veterinary research is, however, still lagging behind its human counterpart. Why is this the case and can we learn from human health data to close this gap?
ATMPs (advanced therapy medicinal products) are expected to reach a global value of 80 billion euro in 2032. While it can be tempting to try to go it alone, the fastest and most intelligent way to advance is by advancing together. The event, Advanced Therapies in Belgium, presents such an occasion, offering a space for innovative ideas and featuring speakers from the forefront of the Belgian and international ATMP innovation.
There has been an unprecedented surge of investments in sustainable agriculture and food technologies in the last decade, but that trend now appears to have reversed into a free fall in funding. This pattern of promise-to-disillusionment perfectly matches the hype cycle previously demonstrated by breakthrough technologies in other sectors. Can we forge a path forward for sustainable agrifood start-ups?
Our current food system is responsible for around a third of global greenhouse gas emissions, extensive deforestation, unsustainable water usage, and an unprecedented loss of biodiversity. Currently, the processes used to produce our food represent an obstacle to limiting average global temperature increases to the levels set out in the Paris Agreement. But are these damaging effects of our current food production landscape an unavoidable cost of feeding humanity or can smart investments in sustainable agritech be part of the solution?
In a hospital, numerous single-use masks, gloves, syringes, and more are thrown away every day to safeguard patients. However, this linear supply chain leaves a large footprint and can have negative effects on our environment and public health. It seems that the road to achieving sustainable healthcare is not straightforward, but circular.
For scientists or budding entrepreneurs with the next big idea in sports tech, the road from conceptualization to product can seem perilous, with many pitfalls along the way. To stand a chance at getting your research out of the lab and into the hands of athletes, it’s essential to start off on the right foot. Read on to see how the collaboration of scientists and sports tech development experts is helping this unique ecosystem in Belgium to flourish.
Ultrasound is a powerful technology that helps healthcare professionals take the first images of your child in utero and allows us to look at soft tissue, such as muscles, tendons, and most internal organs. But ultrasound largely requires patients to be static, meaning crucial information is missed about how muscles or organs behave when they’re most strained during exercise. Now, novel advances and innovative designs from the Netherlands and beyond are bringing ultrasound devices into the wearable medtech era, with exciting possibilities to monitor muscles and organs in motion. These technologies are pushing boundaries in both the medical and sports worlds while helping to diagnose patients, to help athletes train, or to shorten their road to recovery.
Training session after training session, top athletes must push themselves to the limits to test their bodies. Although pain is a clear emergency signal, athletes in pain may push themselves even further. This makes them vulnerable to injuries and severe pain conditions including acute and chronic lower back pain. Although there are several treatment options to alleviate the symptoms, the treatment of acute and chronic pain is not straightforward. A multidisciplinary approach is required, and more treatment options are needed that focus on treating the underlying cause.
At the heart of Europe, Benelux is like a drop of ink spreading its influence internationally; an in-depth study conducted by KBC Securities placed Belgium as Europe’s leading country for biotech in 2024. This year's edition of Knowledge for Growth, hosted by the life sciences cluster flanders.bio celebrating their 20th anniversary, highlighted the vibrant Flemish life sciences ecosystem. The event took place in Antwerp, Belgium on May 15th and 16th, where industry professionals, scientists, investors, policymakers, and more gathered to share their knowledge and insights and answer why the region of Flanders, and the Benelux overall, are doing so well in this vibrant landscape.
While the life sciences environment is adjusting to be able to foster female talents in the workplace, there is still a long way to go to achieve truly egalitarian work conditions. From the ‘motherhood penalty’ to unconscious bias, women can still be made to feel unwelcome in their daily work life. This is what motivated Veroniek Vermeulen to launch Silatha, a company with the goal of creating an environment where everyone can thrive.
STEM has had a long reputation of being a masculine environment, though recent efforts have made this field much more accessible to all genders. Our gender can influence both the external factors and internal methods affecting how we work.
The pursuit of scientific knowledge is at the heart of human progress – it leads to ground-breaking discoveries that have transformed our understanding of the world and our place within it. However, this noble pursuit is not without its blemishes. Scientific fraud – the deliberate misrepresentation of data or results to deceive the scientific community – poses a serious threat to the integrity of the scientific enterprise in both academia and industry. So, what can we do about it?
Novo Nordisk will acquire Cardior Pharmaceuticals for up to 1.025 billion euros, including upfront and additional payments if certain development and commercial milestones are achieved. Cardior is a leader in RNA-based therapies that have the potential to prevent, repair and reverse diseases of the heart. The company’s approach targets distinctive non-coding RNAs to address the root causes of cardiac dysfunctions and achieve lasting patient impact.