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Radiotherapy treatment at Akademiska Hospital, Sweden. © RaySearch Laboratories
health
24 June 2013

Fighting cancer with high-tech imaging

Researchers who can monitor a cancer tumour as it changes and help direct radiation right into its centre believe they may be able to increase the efficiency of cancer treatment by at least a sixth.

Professor Dirk Verellen, from the Medical Faculty of the Free University of Brussels, shared his views with scientists and medical doctors at the 2nd Estro Forum held in April in Geneva © ESTRO
interview | health
17 June 2013

Radiotherapy needs to become more individualised

Professor Dirk Verellen, director of the medical physics group at the Medical Faculty of the Free University of Brussels, outlines his vision on the future of radiotherapy in Europe.

Thanks to the research carried out by Prof. Gyorgy Buzsaki, it is now clear that during extensive seizures, neurons in the middle part of the Hippocampus often degenerate. The device developed in collaboration with Dr Antal Berényi of Hungary’s Szeged University helps prevent these seizures by detecting abnormal brain activity and delivers electrical current to restore it to a normal state, stopping the seizure. (c) Prof. Buzsaki
health | interview
12 June 2013

Stopping epileptic seizures in their tracks

A carry-around device or implant to predict or prevent seizures could be life changing for millions of people with epilepsy.

The team of the reMYND lab is part of the EU-funded AgedBrainSYSBIO project that studies the ageing brain. The hope is to contribute to slowing the progression of Alzheimer's disease. © Koen De Witte
health
31 May 2013

Decoding the cause of Alzheimer's disease

With Europe’s population living longer, the quest for new Alzheimer’s disease (AD) therapies has never been more urgent. Researchers hope that figuring out which genes and environmental factors trigger the illness will deliver drugs that prevent serious memory loss. 

Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science. © European Union, 2013
opinion | health
22 March 2013

How to tackle the ticking bomb of diabetes

Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, urges global collaboration to stop the epidemic. Diabetes currently affects more than 350 million people around the world.

Type-1 diabetes sufferers monitor their blood glucose levels several times a day. © Shutterstock
health
18 March 2013

Diabetes – the preventable epidemic

Eat well and exercise. That is the simple message that could help reverse the spread of one of Europe’s most troubling epidemics – Type 2 diabetes.

Type-2 diabetes is linked to poor diet and an unhealthy lifestyle. © Shutterstock
health
18 March 2013

Research to shed light on diabetes risk to migrant populations

Africans and Asians who migrate to Europe have a higher risk of diabetes than indigenous people as they adjust to a different diet and lifestyle. By looking at the development of diabetes in these groups, researchers hope to find out more about the disease and how to combat it both in Europe and worldwide.

Professor John B. Gurdon was the joint winner of the 2012 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine © Gurdon Institute
interview | health
18 March 2013

Nobel Prize winner who nearly flunked science advises perseverance

‘You will never become a scientist!’ For his teachers, a science career for John Gurdon, was no more than hypothetical. But the British professor who won the 2012 Nobel Prize for Medicine has only one piece of advice for aspiring researchers: ‘Don’t give up!’

Pär Zetterberg © Getty
health
18 March 2013

Diabetes: Patients tell their stories

Diabetes is on the rise all around the world. In the EU alone, there are 33 million people diagnosed with diabetes. They include people of all ages and from all walks of life. The two main forms are insulin-dependent Type-1 diabetes and non-insulin-dependent Type-2 diabetes. Type-1 diabetes, which develops mainly in children and adolescents, is more aggressive. However the disease is not a tragedy, as three ‘Type-1’ patients explain. 

In the lab of the Department of Experimental Medicine based at the University of Leuven, Belgium, directed by Professor Chantal Mathieu, coordinator of the Naimit project. © Lut Overbergh
health
18 March 2013

Tablet treatment could end child diabetes, says researcher

An experimental tablet treatment for child diabetes, where youngsters have traditionally had to inject themselves with sugar controlling insulin, could end up eradicating the disease altogether, according to the scientist leading the European NAIMIT project.

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