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From 2020 to 2025, as part of her doctoral thesis in history, researcher Julie Duchêne conducted a ground-breaking investigation blending history and biology to trace the cohabitation between humans and wolves in Wallonia and Luxembourg, from the 18th to the early 20th century. Thanks to an innovative interdisciplinary approach, including DNA analysis of naturalized 19th-century specimens, her work sheds light on the mechanisms that led to the local extinction of the species. This research was made possible thanks to the support of numerous scientific and cultural partners.

Professor Eli Thoré and Justine Bélik have just been honoured by the Adrien Bauchau Fund (FAB). Created in memory of the founder of the Biology Department at UNamur, the FAB has been promoting excellence in education and research in the life sciences since 1989.

An unusual piece of research recently mobilized teams from UNamur's Biology Department. Genetic analyses carried out by the Environmental and Evolutionary Biology Research Unit (URBE) were able to confirm the protected status of a herd of wild mouflons based in Gesves, and thus highlight the importance of saving 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.

Founded some 50 years ago, the Laboratoire d'Analyse par Réactions Nucléaires (LARN) in the Department of Physics at the University of Namur is home to a 2MV tandem particle gas pedal named ALTAÏS (Accélérateur Linéaire Tandetron pour l'Analyse et l'Implantation des Solides), in operation since 1999.

On December 11, 2024, the University of Reims-Champagne-Ardenne hosted the launch event for the ORION project, in which the University of Namur is a partner. This project, financed for 4 years by ERDF and INTERREG funds, aims to improve water management in the Val de Meuse while preserving the ecosystems of the Val de Meuse, a river running through France and Belgium.

Max Collinet, professor of geology at the Faculty of Science and researcher at the Institute of Life, Earth and Environment (ILEE), has just been awarded equipment funding (EQP) from the F.R.S - FNRS following calls whose results were published in December 2024.

The Meuse and its tributaries, such as the Semois and the Sambre, are natural treasures that flow through France and Belgium. These rivers are home to a rich biodiversity, offer recreational opportunities, and, after treatment, provide clean drinking water. The shared use of these water resources requires consistent, coordinated, and sustainable management. This is the goal of the Interreg ORION project.

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.

Characterization of trehalase from Acyrthosiphon pisum for the design of new insecticides SummaryAphids are major pests in agriculture, causing direct damage to plants and acting as vectors for phytopathogenic viruses. Conventional insecticides are widely used to control them, but their toxicity and efficacy pose problems in terms of the environment, human health and the emergence of resistance to these compounds. New alternatives are therefore needed, such as biological control using predators or parasitoids. However, these methods are not always economically viable on a large scale. As part of this thesis, another approach is being explored which involves developing new insecticides targeting the biochemical functions of aphids.The project aims to discover new inhibitors of trehalase, an enzyme essential for insect energy metabolism. Inhibition of this enzyme could disrupt vital insect functions without affecting mammals. This research involved several stages: the purification and complete characterization of trehalase from Acyrthosiphon pisum (the model for this study), the in vivo, in vitro and in silico analysis of commercial inhibitors on this enzyme, before moving on to the search for new inhibitors. Two points of integrated insect management were explored, biological and chemical control.The biological side saw the study of a strain of Streptomyces naturally producing trehalase-inhibiting metabolites, notably validamycin A, a molecule recognized in the literature as one of the best inhibitors, but not applicable as an insecticide. Other molecules appear to have interesting features, but we have not been able to isolate and characterize them.The chemical side has enabled us to create a pharmacophore hypothesis based on experimental results on molecules obtained by virtual screening. Although these molecules are not usable as insecticides as they stand, this hypothesis provides a better understanding of trehalase inhibitors in general and can be used to refine future analyses. JuryProf. Jean-Yves MATROULE (UNamur), presidentDr Catherine MICHAUX (UNamur), promoter and secretaryProf. Frédéric FRANCIS (ULiège), co-promoterProf. André MATAGNE (ULiège)Dr Rudy CAPARROS (ULiège)Dr Morgan HANS (Biocidal)

An international research team led by the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences has uncovered how pharmaceutical pollution alters the behaviour and migration patterns of Atlantic salmon in nature. Professor Eli Thoré, from the Department of Biology and the ILEE research institute at the University of Namur, contributed to this groundbreaking field study, which has just been published in Science.

The three Belgian scientific experiments selected to be carried out on board the International Space Station (ISS) during astronaut Raphaël Liégeois' mission in 2026 have just been unveiled by the Federal Science Policy Public Service (Belspo). One of them is carried by a team from UNamur for an experiment at the crossroads of biology and physics aimed at analyzing the resistance of the "blob", an atypical unicellular organism.