VIB brings medical breakthroughs to life at Biotech Day
The annual Biotech Day at Flemish life sciences research institute VIB is a chance for scientists to meet the public and show the practical applications of their research
Behind the biotech scenes
On the annual Biotech Day, VIB highlights its own research but also the work of the whole biotech sector in Flanders. This edition, the fifth, focuses on cancer and brain research under the banner “Levenslang gezond” (Healthy for life).
“We want to showcase the entire process, from basic research to an effective treatment, like a medicine,” explains co-ordinator Sooike Stoops. “To develop a therapy against Parkinson’s disease, scientists first have to understand what exactly happens in brain cells.” VIB hopes to demonstrate how patients can benefit from the work in the labs in the long term.
VIB is hosting nine guided tours around the labs, where researchers will explain how the results of an experiment under a microscope can bring them a step closer to developing a therapy. “They will show how transparent zebrafish embryos are used to understand better how blood vessels are formed and what the brains of fruit flies teach us about the human brain,” says Stoops.
Visitors can discover the whole of Flanders’ biotech landscape at a fair, where stands provide information in an interactive way. KU Leuven’s computational neuroscience group presents its Brain Computer Interface through a mind game, for example. After visitors have memorised a playing card, the interface will guess which card they are thinking of. At another stand, researchers will give workshops in pipetting.
Kiwis and chickens
Networking organisation FlandersBio invites people to sit down at the five tables in the Biotech Café, to chat with entrepreneurs about their latest innovations. De Kale Ridders (The Bald Knights) brewery from Landen in Flemish Brabant will offer its guests a taste of the newest beer styles developed thanks to scientific insights.
Biotech Day includes a variety of events specially for children. Young visitors can extract DNA from kiwis and explore how chickens, fish and fruit flies resemble and differ from one another, and in a child-friendly room, researchers will talk about things such as how brain cells determine how the body works.
A unique activity is the performance Ik, Raymond Hamers by theatre company Productions & Zonen. In 20 minutes, actors will explain how the analysis of antibodies in the blood of llamas led to the foundation of Ghent drug company Ablynx. There are also short movies in a separate room, including one showing how Christine Van Broeckhoven is working to fight Alzheimer’s disease.
All over Gasthuisberg, discussions and lectures will take place throughout the day. Journalist Joël De Ceulaer will grill several pairs of academics and entrepreneurs on how their collaboration can lead to breakthroughs, including VIB researcher Patrik Verstreken and Frederik Wittock of Janssen Pharmaceutica on how their institutions are working together towards new medication against brain disorders.
Another interview will deal with the issue of animal testing. Jef Arnout, director of the test animal facilities at KU Leuven, will explain how the animals are cared for, while KU Leuven researcher Liesbet Temmerman will talk about the alternatives to animal testing she is developing.
Investing in biotech
VIB also offers a lecture programme on the financing of the biotech sector, including a debate in which stakeholders will discuss the reasons for investing in biotech. Erwin Lauwers of the non-profit Kom op Tegen Kanker (Come Up Against Cancer) will explain how his organisation chooses which projects to support.
There also is a lecture programme featuring researchers who will explain their latest progress. One of the speakers is PhD researcher Mathias Wenes of the VIB’s Vesalius Research Centre. With professor and oncologist Hans Prenen of Leuven university hospital, Wenes will demonstrate the importance of immune cells in the fight against cancer.
“While the immune system is originally programmed to battle cancer, a tumour can actually use it to develop more blood vessels, which helps the tumour to keep growing,” explains Wenes. “We have found the genetic cause for this phenomenon and hope to find a way to undo the change.”
With UZ Leuven, Wenes and his colleagues at the laboratory of professor Max Mazzone have developed the innovative Monomark blood test to diagnose colon cancer. “Our test is faster and simpler than the current ones, while being just as efficient,” he says. “This new tool should help to screen more people and thus detect many colon cancers at an early stage, which will save many lives.”
The lectures, interviews, debate and theatre performance are in Dutch. During other activities, explanations in English are possible
Photo: Last year’s Biotech Day
© VIB
Flemish Institute for Biotechnology (VIB)
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