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Healthcare


Research aimed at protecting human health is well developed at the ULB. Involving doctors, psychologists, biomechanics, physiotherapists, osteopath, biologists, pharmacists, chemists, engineers, physicists, mathematicians, it revolves around the ULB hospital network in Brussels (the university hospitals Erasmus, Bordet, Brugmann and Huderf, as well as the Iris network) and in Hainaut (Charleroi, La Louviere, Mons). Synergies with the hospital network enable the implementation of approaches featuring translational and personalised medicine: from the laboratory to a patient's bed and vice-versa. The most advanced research is thus made available to patients. In return the clinical characteristics of patients and the data stored in biobanks or gained from genome sequencing are analysed, using bioinformatics, in an effort to advance research. In the medical field, a substantial amount of research effort is being invested in cancer, the immune system and its deficiencies, neurological diseases, infectious diseases (especially AIDS and sleeping sickness), diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, infertility, as well as in the relationship between micro-particles and cardiovascular diseases or problems related to motor skills and rehabilitation, with a focus on the elderly and infants. Several ULB teams are similarly working on subjects of social relevance such as the psychological factors associated with prevention, screening, the treatment and palliation of medical conditions (particularly cancer), the care of patients with chronic diseases and addictions, various forms of psychosis, or the experience of conception and birth. The research labs of the Faculty of Pharmacy use the most advanced biochemical and bioanalytical techniques and platforms for identifying new active ingredients and therapeutical targets, and developing more efficient and more reliable new medicines. There is also extensive collaboration between medical teams and engineers and physicists to develop new tools for medical use, ranging from imaging to the development of less invasive surgical instruments. Last but not least, the economic, social and ethical dimensions of health are intensively studied: specific behavioural features associated with health (looked at also from the perspective of social inequality), HR requirements in healthcare institutions, vaccination programmes, cancer monitoring, etc. Special attention is accorded to less-developed countries, with which a large number of collaboration projects and training programmes exist.


Neurosciences


Understanding how the brain functions is undoubtedly one of the most exciting challenges science has to offer, as the brain is not just the most complex structure of the living world, but also plays a major role in what distinguishes us as humans. But understanding the brain is also a major societal issue, with societies confronted by the scourge of neurological diseases, and in particular neurodegenerative diseases associated with aging. What is at stake is, for example, to understand how 20,000 genes control the ''wiring'' of billions of synapses linking up our neurons, what influence the environment has on brain development, from embryo to the young adult, and on age-related degradations, and which mechanisms lead to such diseases as epilepsy, autism, addiction or Alzheimer. To explain how the brain works - or doesn't work -, we need to study the different mechanisms at work on very different scales, from genes to neurons, neural circuits, perception, behaviour and consciousness. Neuroscience research is thus eminently multidisciplinary, ranging from molecular processes to cognitive science, via neurophysiology and neuro-imaging. At the ULB, all this expertise is gathered together in the ULB Neuroscience Institute (UNI), the home of more than 150 researchers coming from 17 research groups from four faculties. UNI research relies on clinical research. It has at its disposal an exceptional equipment park, including functional magnetic resonance imaging, electro-encephalography and magneto-encephalography, and enabling the study of how neurons function when executing a specific action, with a temporal resolution in the order of one millisecond.