Blood vessels sustain health and proper functioning of our body. A multi-disciplinary team of scientists, led by prof. Peter Carmeliet (VIB-KU Leuven Center for Cancer Biology) has made several breakthrough discoveries concerning the metabolism of the individual building blocks of blood vessels - the so-called endothelial cells. They identified three key proteins that determine how blood vessels grow and behave, and that may become new therapeutic targets in blood vessel related disorders, such as life-threatening cancers and blinding eye diseases. For his pioneering research, Peter Carmeliet will receive the most prestigious international science prize, 2018 Heineken Prize for Medicine.