Peter Carmeliet of the Vesalius Research Centre, part of the Flemish Institute for Biotechnology (VIB), was awarded the grant for his work on the supply of energy to blood vessels, an important new avenue in the fight against cancer. In cancer, the body's cells mutate and undergo unrestrained growth. If blood supply to the cancer cells could be cut off, the tumours themselves would die.

Carmeliet was recently awarded a "Flemish Nobel prize" with five other researchers by the Fund for Scientific Research for work in the same area.

Bart De Strooper, meanwhile, of the department of development and molecular genetics, earned his grant for research into Alzheimer's disease. De Strooper's work involves the creation in the brain cells of microRNA, which changes as Alzheimer's develops and could lead to the discovery of new drugs to slow or arrest the disease progress.

Both men were described by the European Research Council as being "world leaders" in their respective fields.

The VIB brings together 1,200 researchers from four universities in Ghent, Leuven, Antwerp and Brussels who work on basic research into the molecular basis of human, animal and plant organism, with some 72 different workgroups.