VIB (the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology)

Medical research

Towards antibodies against COVID-19

The lab of Xavier Saelens (VIB-UGent Center for Medical Biotechnology) announces the isolation and characterization of a unique antibody that can bind to the virus that causes COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2). The antibody was described ...

Neuroscience

Alzheimer's risk genes converge on microglia

DNA determines a large part of the risk for Alzheimer's disease, but it remained unclear how many genetic risk factors contribute to disease. A team led by Prof. Bart De Strooper (VIB-KU Leuven) and Dr. Mark Fiers now show ...

Psychology & Psychiatry

Novelty speeds up learning thanks to dopamine activation

Brain scientists led by Sebastian Haesler (NERF, empowered by IMEC, KU Leuven and VIB) have identified a causal mechanism of how novel stimuli promote learning. Novelty directly activates the dopamine system, which is responsible ...

Medical research

A protein tag to study the immune system

Researchers from VIB-UGent Center for Medical Biotechnology, University of Iowa (USA) and other collaborators, developed a novel approach to better understand a basic defense mechanism of our immune system. Central is ISG15, ...

Medical research

Linking wound healing and cancer risk

When our skin is damaged, a whole set of biological processes springs into action to heal the wound. Now, researchers from the VIB-UGent Center for Inflammation Research have shown that one of the molecules involved in this, ...

Oncology & Cancer

Encouraging normal liver cells to fight cancer

A study conducted at the VIB-KU Leuven Center for Cancer Biology discovered that healthy liver tissue surrounding a tumor activates a defense mechanism that restrains tumor growth. Remarkably, the researchers found that hyperactivation ...

Medical research

Studying the human brain in mice

The human brain is a tricky study subject. Brain scans are still limited in resolution and the knowledge they can provide, and in vitro approaches are not yet able to fully replicate the important micro-environment of brain ...

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