“Great biology starts with great questions, but not every question can be answered with a centrifuge and a pipette.” Bram Van den Bergh explains how the VIB Tech Watch Core scouts and de-risks emerging technologies, bringing new capabilities closer to VIB researchers. https://tinyurl.com/c56sc23f

Summer means... heat waves, world cup fever, but also: summer schools! We've had three this season: Computational Cytometry, Light Microscopy, and Spatial Omics. 👉 https://blog.vib.be/summer-is-the-season-for-learning

Build your postdoc around technology development! The final EMBL ARISE2 postdoctoral call is open. VIB is a partner, so projects can connect to VIB Technologies expertise through collaboration, co-supervision or secondments. https://www.embl.org/training/arise2/

New methods chapter from the VIB BioImaging Core Leuven and Agostinis lab, describing a super-resolution live-cell imaging protocol to track redox-active iron transfer between organelles, with relevance for ferroptosis research. 👉 https://doi.org/10.1016/bs.mcb.2026.01.005

At the VIB Screening Core, robots, liquid handlers and readers work in sync to automate high-throughput workflows. But the real value is the team’s expertise: turning manual, variable lab steps into robust, reproducible automation. Learn more 👉 https://tinyurl.com/zxch76wy

Spatial Omics has kicked off! 🚀 If you’re attending in Bruges, come find us at the VIB Technologies booth. Pick up some VIB Technologies goodies, or hear more about the expertise and services available across our cores. 👋 You might even win a prize! #SpatialOmics26

For the Laoui lab’s recent pan-cancer dendritic cell atlas, the VIB Single Cell Core supported the multiomics workflows that helped make datasets comparable across models, experiments, and sites. Proud to contribute to this resource! 👏#pushingtheedge

Boris Depoortere and Liesbeth De Milde from the VIB Data Core joined #WetenschapOpStap in Ghent and Drongen to turn pupils into young data detectives: collecting everyday data, spotting patterns, and asking great questions about science, privacy & digital footprints.

Today we’re celebrating 10Y of 10X Genomics at VIB! 🥳 A decade in which single-cell technologies moved from early exploration to a core part of how we study biology. Huge thanks to the Single Cell Core, all speakers, participants, and everyone who helped shape this story over the past 10 years. 🙌

Virotrap: Capture protein-protein interactions without cell lysis by packaging complexes into virus-like particles, preserving fragile/native interactions for MS readout. Curious if it fits your bait? Get in touch with the VIB Proteomics core https://tinyurl.com/ps96w2um

In a new Technologies deep dive, Eef Parthoens from the VIB BioImaging Core Ghent discusses how FLIM-FRET turns nanometer-scale proximity into a quantitative readout 👇 https://blog.vib.be/seeing-interactions-where-biology-happens

Next week at #CYTO2026, Gert Van Isterdael (VIB Flow Core Ghent) will share new work on how to make panels and instrument templates more consistent, so datasets become easier to reproduce and compare across locations. Come join the session and say hi! 👋

Who remembers this? 👀 💭 The very first 10x kit we ran at VIB 10 years ago! 🎉 10 Years of 10x Genomics at VIB 🗓️ 12 June 2026, afternoon | FSVM1 (Ghent) 👉 Free to attend, register here to reserve your seat: https://singlecellcore.sites.vib.be/en/10-years-10x-genomics-vib

We're getting closer to VIB’s Spatial Omics Conference! 🤩 Evelien Van Hamme (VIB Spatial Catalyst): "I’m most looking forward to the talks by Fei Chen and Serge Saxonov, as they represent two complementary forces driving the spatial biology field forward." https://tinyurl.com/mwys9vx6

Core facilities are built on expertise, but they also run on people. How we handle stress, expectations, and conflict matters just as much as how we run the instruments. The Core4Life community shares data and results from an anonymous survey on this topic. https://doi.org/10.1111/jmi.70102

May brought the heat, and apparently that officially makes it summer school season at VIB Technologies. ☀️ Computational Cytometry Summer School (4-8 May) ☀️ Light Microscopy Summer School (18-22 May) And we’re not done yet: coming up next is the Spatial Omics Summer School (15-19 June)

As technologies get more complex, core facilities create far more value when they collaborate, share know-how, and communicate capabilities clearly, so researchers can find the right expertise at the right moment. New paper by our experts: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/jmi.70103

Mol* Viewer is now available via the VIB Data Core 🚀 Instant, in-browser macromolecular structure visualization straight from Compute Storage. No installs, no downloads, no remote desktop. https://blog.vib.be/instant-structure-visualization-with-mol-viewer

Jochen Lamote was invited as a special guest speaker at the BD Horizon NEXT EMEA Tour 2026 in Hamburg and had the chance to visit the Borstel core facility team and run experiments on the BD FACSDiscover™ A8 in Hamburg. Thanks to the BD team and hosts for the invitation and great discussions!

In a new Called to Science episode, VIB alumna Lia Martina highlighted the depth of technology expertise in our core facilities and a culture that encourages researchers to lean on specialists: “If you are not the best in one technique, you go to the best.” https://tinyurl.com/jtp7nhyr

In a new open-access EMBO Reports paper, we propose a practical framework for KPI-based evaluation of core facilities, reflecting how they 🔥 enable science, 🎯 run reliably, 🚀 and stay future-ready through proactive innovation https://doi.org/10.1038/s44319-026-00762-z

Cross-core knowledge exchange in action. 🙌 Delphi Van Haver, Morgane Breye and Teresa Maia of the VIB Proteomics Core visited the VIB Nucleomics Core for a job shadowing focused on automation. 🤖 "We're looking forward to putting these insights into practice on our own Opentrons OT-2 & Flex!"

The De Preter lab at the VIB-UGent Center for Medical Biotechnology became the first users of the VIB Data Core's new secure compute cluster. 🙌 https://blog.vib.be/on-dealing-with-large-volumes-of-sensitive-data

Brain activity, live in a dish 🧠✨ Calcium imaging (Fluo-5) in primary hippocampal neurons, captured at the VIB BioImaging Core Ghent on a ZEISS LSM 980 + Airyscan. Imaging: Eef Parthoens Sample & experiment: Cristiano Lucci, @vandenbroucke-lab.bsky.social

Meet Alexandra Zakieva, data manager at EMBL, who recently joined the VIB BioImaging Core in Leuven for an ARISE secondment. https://blog.vib.be/modern-science-needs-stronger-infrastructure-and-a-new-generation-is-rising-to-build-it

Last Wednesday, the VIB Flow Core Leuven hosted the #FlowJo User Meeting in Leuven: a full day focused on cytometry data analysis, software workflows, and hands-on learning. 🔬💻 📸

Proteomics is changing fast, and so are the demands on core facilities. Explore how the VIB Proteomics Core is future-proofing its pipeline to support everything from classic discovery projects to large-scale clinical studies and single-cell proteomics. https://blog.vib.be/proteomics-at-scale

Basic Proteomics is happening today and tomorrow at the VIB Proteomics Core in Ghent! Two hands-on days covering the full MS-based workflow: experimental design, sample prep (incl. S-trap), LC-MS/MS, and intro data analysis. Kudos to the trainer team for sharing their expertise! 🙌

The VIB BioImaging Core (Ghent) team has really outdone itself this time. Meet the full crew and take a tour through their light microscopy (LM) and electron microscopy (EM) suite in a seriously dope MTV Cribs–style video. 🎬 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4xjmgxAdYM

The Spatial Omics Summer School offers a structured, hands-on introduction to spatially resolved targeted transcriptomics, proteomics, and metabolomics. If you want to join, submit your application by 2 February 2026. https://www.vibconferences.be/events/spatial-omics-summer-school