Newsletter

The global rise of antibiotic-resistant bacteria is one of the greatest health challenges of our time. At the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), biologist Jessie Vandierendonck has been working on an innovative solution: using bacteriophages — viruses that specifically infect and destroy bacteria. Bacteriophages, or simply phages, have been known for over a century but are now regaining attention as a promising alternative to

Sourdough bread is making a major comeback. It’s praised for being pure, nutritious, and full of character. But what exactly makes this bread so special? In his PhD at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), researcher Víctor González Alonso delved deep into the heart of the fermentation process — and discovered how wheat fibers influence not only the texture but also the flavor of bread. At the center of his research are arabinoxylans (AX), dietary fibers naturally present in

The Antarctic ice sheet is losing mass at an increasing rate due to cracks and fractures in its ice shelves. This is the conclusion of new research by Maaike Izeboud, postdoctoral researcher at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), and her colleagues from TU Delft. Their findings, published in Nature Climate Change , show how this damage has evolved over the past decades and what the consequences could be under different climate scenarios. Izeboud and her team created a uniqu

Fermentation is as old as humanity itself, yet the microorganisms that drive this process remain surprisingly mysterious. With her PhD at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), bioengineer Louise Vermote helped change that. Using advanced DNA sequencing techniques, she uncovered the invisible world of bacteria, yeasts, and fungi that shape our food, from Belgian lambic beer to Korean rice vinegar. “Fermentation is an ancient process, but only now can we truly see which microor

How far can we push the Standard Model of particle physics? According to young researchers Kunal Gautam and Eduardo Ploerer — doctoral students at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) and the University of Zurich — the end is nowhere in sight. Their work provides crucial building blocks for the Future Circular Collider (FCC-ee), the planned successor to CERN’s current Large Hadron Collider (LHC). The FCC-ee will be an unprecedented precision instrument — but that precision re

VUB researcher Michaël Hinderdael coordinates large-scale GRADΞD project on innovative material combinations At the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), the ambitious GRADΞD project officially launched on October 1, 2025, under the leadership of researcher Michaël Hinderdael. With a €2.8 million grant from the Research Foundation – Flanders (FWO), the four-year project aims to make 3D printing technology smarter and more versatile by combining multiple materials within a single

The Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB) is taking a leading role in the fight against the adulteration of argan oil, the precious “liquid Moroccan gold.” For her doctoral research, conducted in collaboration with Mohammed V University in Rabat, Meryeme El Maouardi developed innovative methods to rapidly and accurately verify the quality and authenticity of argan oil. Science against fraud Argan oil is prized worldwide for its culinary and cosmetic properties, but its rarity make

Research by Eva Kimpe (VUB, I-CHER and the Research Centre for Digital Medicine) shows how treatments and socio-economic conditions affect the long-term survival of women with invasive breast cancer. Through a unique linkage of three national databases — the Belgian Cancer Registry, the InterMutualistic Agency, and the Crossroads Bank for Social Security — researchers were able to analyze, at the individual level, the medical trajectories, healthcare costs, socio-economic bac

An international study published in Nature  and led by ETH Zurich has, for the first time, established a direct link between the emissions of the world’s largest fossil fuel and cement producers and the rise of extreme heatwaves worldwide. Shocking findings Researchers analyzed more than 200 heatwaves between 2000 and 2023 and were able to systematically trace them back to the so-called carbon majors . The results show that climate change made heatwaves in the early 2000s twe