A microbiome solution for type 1 diabetes?
Few things unite us the way trying to help a sick child does. Children living with the burden of type 1 diabetes (T1D) is just such a case. The desire to help young patients has galvanized a global effort, the TEDDY study, to understand what causes the disorder and pave the way for effective interventions. […]
A Personal Translation of Microbiome Futures
Nature Biotechnology published a thought-provoking piece addressing critical questions in the development of microbiome-based solutions focused on disease interception. Co-authored by over a dozen key opinion leaders in the microbiome field, the article summarizes the main outcomes from Microbiome Futures, an effort to create a roadmap for translation in the microbiome space. The Microbiome Futures […]
Battling antibiotic resistance: a new protein powered solution
The discovery of antibiotics fundamentally changed healthcare in the 20th century. Deadly infections suddenly became treatable and millions of lives were saved. But excessive antibiotic use in both healthcare and agriculture has allowed some microbes to become resistant. Resistance has even been reported to last resort treatments, like colistin, in the past few years. With […]
Microbiome regulations from an EU start-up’s perspective
Interested in the microbiome? So are we! Here’s a sneak-peek into S-Biomedic, one of the first microbiome start-ups in Belgium. We asked CEO Veronika Oudova to tell us about the challenge of being a new company developing an innovative product in a field where the regulations haven’t quite caught up with reality. By Amy LeBlanc […]
From Academia to Industry: growing in new directions
What does it mean to “be a scientist”? People generally have a very academia-centric view: scientists do research, write grants and churn out papers. Yet there are many ways to work in a scientific setting without being an academic. Often these jobs, be they as managers, analysts or communicators, are found in industry. Unfortunately, academics […]
WHO report ranks deadly diseases in need of drugs
The World Health Organization recently released a report outlining the imminent threat of antimicrobial-resistant diseases. In the midst of such doom and gloom, could a solution be found in our own backyards? Scientists are turning their attention towards medicinal plants for future drug research and development. By Amy LeBlanc Superbugs, failing antibiotics and deadly diseases: […]
How Aphea.Bio managed to gather the funds to transcend from academia to industry
Aphea.Bio is an agriculture startup, originating from the VIB and flourishing underneath the wings of V-Bio Ventures. Steven Vandenabeele (CTO at Aphea.Bio and previously working at BASF-CropDesign) and Willem Broekaert (managing director of V-Bio Ventures) explain how they found the necessary budget to give this company a head start. We are convinced that, in parallel […]
Designer yeast: synthetic genome closer to reality
Five entirely synthetic yeast chromosomes were created this year. By 2018 every chromosome is expected to have a synthetic couterpart, resulting in en entirely synthetic genome.
Using bacteria to fight obesity and diabetes
Using the gut bacterium Akkermansia muciniphila to treat obese and diabetic patients is now one step closer to becoming a reality, thanks to the work of a group of researchers led by Patrice Cani from the UCL and Willem de Vos from Wageningen University. By using a new cultivation medium and applying pasteurization, these scientists […]
The PhD of Sue Ellen : Start small to dream big
Sue Ellen Taelman studied bioscience engineering (with an emphasis on environmental technology ) at Ghent University from 2007 until 2012. She wrote her master’s thesis on the sustainability of algae production while working with the research group EnVOC in the Department of Sustainable Organic Chemistry and Technology, where she learned all about sustainability, life-cycle analysis […]
Colistin: breaking the last line of antibiotic defense
A first case of colistin resistance has been described in the US. This is troubling news, since colistin is used as a last-resort drug in combating infections with highly antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The intensive use of colistin in the pork industry, mainly in China, is suspected to have caused the development of this resistance. Now, the trait is spreading rapidly; does this herald the beginning of a post-antibiotics era?
I was published in science – A cocktail of bugs
Each one of us carries trillions and trillions of ‘bugs’, as Jeroen Raes (Group Leader at Bioinformatics and (eco-)systems biology lab, VIB/VUB/KU Leuven) likes to call them —micro-organisms that live in our bodies and make up the so-called microbiome, or gut flora. While these microbes have been linked to different diseases, information about which factors in a healthy individual’s diet and lifestyle affect the microbiome has remained elusive. What is the potential of the microbiota as a diagnostic solution at this time? Can we manipulate it to prevent diseases and use it to influence drug sensitivity? What are the challenges in the microbiomics field? Will we be able to develop targeted, even personalized probiotics? Is there a hype surrounding microbiomics that the public, scientists and communicators must take into account when evaluating its recent advances and future possibilities?
Biofuel production from steel mill waste: Steelanol
ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel and mining company, is investing 87 million euro in a flagship pilot project in the harbor of Ghent. The Steelanol (steel + ethanol) project aims to use a patented process from LanzaTech to convert CO generated from steelmaking into ethanol, which can be used as biofuel, thus reducing the company’s […]
Digestion in a jar – Time to SHIME®
In 2008, UGent spin-off ProDigest opened its doors. The company was built around a machine called the SHIME®, an in vitro model for the entire human gastrointestinal tract, complete with stomach and small and large intestines. The immediate interest from the food industry quickly made ProDigest a household name in its niche market. Since its establishment, ProDigest has significantly expanded its technology and activities and has taken on the pharmaceutical and veterinarian industries as additional partners.
Weight loss? KitoZyme turns it into gold!
KitoZyme, a biotech company active in the healthcare sector, started as a spin-off from the University of Liege in 2000. Their IP is based on the biopolymers, chitosan and chitin-glucan. Traditionally, chitosan is extracted from crabs and shrimp. However, KitoZyme has managed to derive chitosan from a non-aminal source using fungi. They have a portfolio […]