Projecten

Decompensation of liver cirrhosis and progression towards acute-on-chronic liver failure (ACLF) causes 1.2 million deaths/year. Microbiome is causally involved in cirrhosis progression and is for drugs the first interaction point with the patients. Drugs can alter the microbiome leading to unwanted effects or even facilitating their effects, but the microbiome metabolizes the drugs, shapes their effects and possibly determines the host ...

Do our gut microbes influence our emotions? This sounded far-fetched a decade ago, but rodent research has shown that the microbial ecosystem in the gut (the gut microbiota) causally impacts affective processes. The underlying microbiota-gut-brain signalling mechanisms include the capacity of the microbiota to produce short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) from dietary fiber and to regulate inflammation.
These rodent findings have great ...

Food fermentation has been used for millennia, but our knowledge on the impact of fermented foods on human health and the possible role of gut microbiota in it is limited. Microbial consortia and fermentation processes are, hence, not designed for optimal health outcomes. At the same time, fermentation technology represents a major opportunity to increase incorporation of plant-based proteins in diets.
The multi-actor consortium ...

The overall objective of MonoGutHealth is to provide an interdisciplinary, intersectoral and international training experience for ESR’s in an inspiring, novel and highly topical area of livestock research encompassing animal husbandry, social innovations and entrepreneurship. The 11 ESR projects will explore strategies employing nutritional and/or bioactive ingredients to influence perinatal development in monogastrics. The objective being ...

Mental (anxiety and depression) and non-mental (fibromyalgia and chronic fatigue syndrome) comorbidities are highly prevalent in irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), with over 60 million Europeans affected, mostly women, by devastating manifestations, impaired treatment and quality of life. Estimated costs are €43 billion/year for IBS, mostly derived from comorbid IBS. Our hypothesis is that comorbid IBS represents a distinct clinical entity, ...

Animals and bacteria have been working together for about as long as they have co-existed, long before the advent of mankind. The bodies of our ancient ancestors offered protected, nutrient-rich habitats for bacteria. In return, animals could take an evolutionary short-cut to developing new capabilities by ‘borrowing’ bacterial genes. Indeed, when gut bacteria assist with the digestion of e.g. dietary fiber, the resulting metabolites will ...

The ChiLLS research project will investigate the interpreter-mediated questioning of minors who come into contact with the police or with other legal actors in the context of criminal proceedings.

ChiLLS is a continuation of the CO-MINOR-IN/QUEST I and CO-MINOR-IN/QUEST II research projects.

The ChiLLS research project wishes to take the above mentioned research a step further. The researchers will conduct interviews and focus ...

Autonomous systems offer humankind tremendous opportunities, like freeing us from mundane tasks, carrying out risky procedures and generally giving us more time to enjoy the things we like doing. However, we lack trust in many forms of autonomous systems: partly this is human nature, but primarily because these systems, such as self-driving cars, have not demonstrated their safety credentials. Only by making these systems safer can we expect ...

The EU has set ambitious goals to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to combat climate change. The transport sector is a major contributor to these emissions, but the targets for this sector cannot be met with currently available materials technology. Due to the direct link between weight and energy consumption, EU investment in advancing lightweight technologies is crucial. Therefore, fibre-reinforced composites are a key technology, but they ...