Mission Lucidity brings clinicians, scientists, and engineers from Imec, KU Leuven, UZ Leuven, and VIB together to gain a deeper understanding of neurodegenerative disorders with the ultimate goal of curing and preventing them. One of the projects (Brain-on-chip) tackles Parkinson’s disease.

Being able to detect an infection with SARS-CoV-2 and to distinguish its variants can be decisive for gauging the spread of disease and selecting the right therapy. Researchers from Würzburg at the Helmholtz Institute for RNA-based Infection Research (HIRI) tackle this challenge with a new CRISPR discovery they translated into a diagnostic platform called Leopard.

Researchers at KU Leuven (Belgium) have developed a 3D printing technique that extends the possibilities of lateral flow testing. These tests are widespread in the form of the classic pregnancy test and the Covid-19 self-tests. With the new printing technique, advanced diagnostic tests can be produced that are quick, cheap, and easy to use.

With Pipetus, Hirschmann offers a battery-operated pipetting aid for all pipettes from 0.1 to 200 ml.

Calling all startups, scale-ups, entrepreneurs and innovators, Akzo Nobel started the first edition of its "Paint the Future - the startup challenge" to discover new and revolutionary solutions that are intended accelerate innovation in the world of paints and coatings.

In an article by Patrick Probst et al. published in Nature Materials, researchers led by Prof. Dr. Andreas Fery and Dr. Tobias A.F. König of the Leibniz Institute of Polymer Research Dresden describe a new design strategy for the fabrication of thin nanostructured films for active control of circularly polarized light. It is based on chiral nanoassembly by stacking two substrates with nanoparticle chains.

A project led by Prof. Dr. Irina Engelhardt, who teaches hydrogeology at the TU Berlin, aims to enhance our understanding of bank filtration processes and to improve predictive capabilities of models describing transport of microorganisms in bank filtration. Model-based tools are developed to enable waterworks operators to assess more accurately the purification potential of their bank filtration plants with regard to microorganisms.

With the successful completion of a second closing, Labforward adds more than three million Euro to the Series B from January, bringing the total funds raised to more than 8.5 million Euro. The majority of the new investment comes from the Fielmann Family Office, majority owner of the leading German family business of the same name that serves its 27 million customers across 15 European markets with eyewear and hearing aids.

Bio-Rad Laboratories announced the launch of the Reliance Sars-Cov-2 RT-PCR Kit (IVD) for European markets after having met the CE-IVD mark requirements.

Norwegian researchers have found that neighbour-cells can take over functions of damaged or missing insulin-producing cells in the pancreas. The discovery may lead to new treatments for diabetes.