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One of the major concerns with the disease caused by Covid-19 is its severe course, which causes many problems that can lead to hospital overload. Early detection of whether or not a person is at risk of developing a severe form of the disease is therefore crucial to optimise patient care and hospital resource management. This is one of the objectives of the study carried out by QUALIblood, a UNamur spin-off, in collaboration with the Department of Pharmacy and many other industrial and hospital partners. Exploration of a cutting-edge technology at the service of health.

A team of microbiology researchers from UNamur has just published in the journal Nature Communications. The work focuses on the Brucella bacterium that causes Brucellosis, a disease that infects livestock and can be transmitted to humans. This research aims to better understand the molecular mechanisms of the bacterium's growth in order to better combat it.

As the largest and heaviest organ in the human body, the skin is the focus of Professor Yves Poumay's research. For nearly 30 years, within the Cells and Tissues laboratory (LabCeTi), he has been developing in vitro epidermal models that reproduce skin pathologies to better understand and treat them. A pioneering approach that offers alternatives to animal experimentation! On the eve of an international congress devoted to dermatology research organised at UNamur (see below), he talks about the importance of melanoma screening and details the latest advances in dermatology made in his laboratory.

When a tumour develops in an organism, it is very common for the cancer cells to leave the tumour and move to another organ where they proliferate, creating what are known as metastases. This process is an important factor in mortality, as it means that the disease worsens. Hence the interest in better understanding what happens during this phenomenon. This is what the multidisciplinary team of Carine Michiels, researcher at the NARILIS Institute of UNamur, and Davide Bonifazi, researcher at the University of Vienna, did in the framework of the PACMAN research project financed by the FNRS. The results of this study are published in the journal Neoplasia.

On 13 December 2023, Charlotte Beaudart, a new academic at the University of Namur Faculty of Medicine, will be awarded a prize at the annual ceremony for Belgian scientific research in support of her innovative research on the subject of ageing.

The Elongator complex is involved in the addition of 5'-carboxylmethyluridine (cm5U)-derived modifications to transfer RNAs (tRNAs), thereby influencing the translation of certain messenger RNAs (mRNAs) and helping to maintain the integrity of the proteome. This complex is involved in a variety of biological processes, and is of particular importance in oncology. The identification of chemical inhibitors of Elongator is of significant interest in both basic and pharmaceutical research.Through a yeast screen, this work reveals a potential new role for Elongator and identifies a chemical inhibitor of the complex. This compound presents itself as an interesting candidate as a pharmacological inhibitor, opening up new perspectives for the search for anti-cancer therapies.

EMBO Courses and Workshops are selected for their excellent scientific quality and timelines, provision of good networking activities for all participants and speaker gender diversity (at least 40% of speakers must be from the underrepresented gender). Organisers are encouraged to implement measures to make the meeting environmentally more sustainable.Upon registration - More info and registration on the EMBO website.

The Covid-19 pandemic is a human tragedy that has caused millions of deaths worldwide and put our entire society under great strain. But it has also been a tremendous collective moment for many UNamur scientists, whose research continues in an attempt to better understand this disease and its consequences.

A multidisciplinary research team from the University of Namur (UNamur) and the UCL Namur University Hospital (Godinne campus) has just published a study in the journal Acta Neuropathologica that sheds light on some of the mysteries surrounding the origin of the pain experienced by patients with long COVID. Their findings suggest that these painful symptoms may be mediated by an autoimmune response. In other words: patients produce antibodies that attack their own neurons—those responsible for pain perception and deep body sensation, located along the spine. These highly promising results represent a major scientific breakthrough that opens new avenues for better understanding the disease and, ultimately, developing a treatment targeting the painful symptoms of long COVID.

Stanford University has published a prestigious ranking that highlights the most influential researchers in a wide range of scientific fields. The list, based on bibliographic criteria, aims to provide a standardized means of identifying the world's scientific leaders. It is one criterion among others for assessing the quality of scientific research. Twelve researchers from the University of Namur are among them!

Researchers from UNamur's Departments of Biology and Physics have conducted a scientific experiment to assess the radioresistance of the common black ant Lasius niger. The results of their work have just been published in the Belgian scientific journal Belgian Journal of Zoology. The Namur-based scientists demonstrate a level of resistance far superior to that of humans. Their spontaneous approach also demonstrates a lesser-known approach to scientific research.

The TineaDiag project is a research project run by UNamur and ULiège with funding from the SPW Research Win²WAL program. It tackles dermatophytoses, skin infections responsible for ringworm, which can affect both humans and animals. The aim? To identify, in dermatophytes, precise cellular markers in order to detect them with sensitivity and certainty, and thus identify infections caused by antifungal-resistant strains.