


The body is a battleground, with germs and diseases trying constantly to take up residence and do damage. To prevent this the body has evolved over millennia techniques to fight off these invaders, but sometimes it's just not enough. The experts this evening will discuss some of the many ways the body comes under attack, how it responds and what we can do to help it.
How cancer adapts
Florian Handle
Postdoctoral researcher, molecular endocrinology lab, KU Leuven
KU Leuven
Cancer is one of the major healthcare concerns in modern society and a broad spectrum of treatments have been developed to fight cancer cells. Frequently these therapies are able to cure the patients but sometimes the cancer cells adapt and become resistant to the treatment. As a researcher, I am focusing on the molecular adaptions in the cancer cells to gain an insight into the resistance mechanisms. In this talk, I am going to present some examples of how cancer cells become resistant to therapy and how we might be able to use these changes against them.

I have a cold, am I going to get heart failure?
Paolo Carai
PhD student, CMVB, KU Leuven
KU Leuven
We often hear about viruses, they cause infectious diseases from the common cold to HIV. Heart failure is not commonly thought of as an infectious disease, but in fact, it can be! And it can be caused by the very same viruses that trigger the common cold in many of us. A viral infection of the heart can cause chronic chest pain, reduce the heart ability to pump and can lead to sudden death. While therapies can help, they are often not effective, so it is important to understand how viruses can cause so much damage, and how we can stop them which is what I’d like to explain in this talk.
