Until the end of the 20th century, heredity was seen by scientists as a matter of genes and DNA transmission. But in recent decades, research has revealed non-genetic transmissions, helping to explain why children on average resemble their parents more than other individuals in a population. These include epigenetic (changes in gene activity without changing the DNA sequence), microbial, hormonal and behavioral transmissions. Some biologists and philosophers now speak of "extended heredity".

"The challenge is to redraw the concept of heredity, going beyond the strictly genetic vision that has prevailed until now", explains Gaëlle Pontarotti. "The aim of my book and my research is to articulate different forms of transmission and to rethink the compatibility between heredity and transgenerational freedom."

For since Greek antiquity, everything suggests that we are locked into a family destiny. But if heredity goes beyond genes, what room for manoeuvre do we have? "The challenge is to find a happy medium between hereditary fatalism and the illusion of omnipotence in the face of our heritage", sums up the researcher.

This new concept overturns our vision of filiation and the status of the individual. We are no longer simply objects determined by causes beyond our control: we are once again actors in what we receive and transmit. It also invites us to reconsider the place of genes in filiation: is the parent fundamentally the one who transmits his or her genetic heritage?

And what if, ultimately, our heritage was also what we chose to make of it?

Cover credit: Éditions Gallimard, book visual Par-delà les gènes.

Olivier Sartenaer's team: Doan Vu Duc, Maxime Hilbert, Charly Mobers, Olivier Sartenaer, Louis Halflants, Andrea Roselli, Gauvain Leconte-Chevillard, Eve-Aline Dubois.

"Several contingent factors enabled the creation of SPiN: the absence of a research structure specifically dedicated to these themes and the almost simultaneous arrival of four young philosophers of science. It's a bit like an alignment of the planets", explains Olivier Sartenaer.

At his side are Juliette Ferry-Danini (Faculty of Computer Science), Thibaut De Meyer (Faculty of Philosophy and Letters) and Gaëlle Pontarotti (Faculty of Science), who form the core of SPiN.

SPiN is part of a research dynamic committed to the heart of contemporary debates.

SPiN researchers explore a wide range of themes, against a backdrop of questioning our relationship to scientific knowledge. These include:

• the relationship between science and pseudoscience;
• reductionism in science;
• genetic determinism and heredity;
• medical ethics and public health (vaccinations, pandemics);
• ethology,
• perspectivism.

This research is carried out by an interdisciplinary team of teacher-researchers, doctoral students and post-docs from the various faculties of UNamur.

SPiN organizes weekly seminars devoted to current research in philosophy of science, as well as seminars linked to more specific themes: health, life sciences, cosmology and theories of emergence and reductionism in the natural sciences.

But SPiN is not limited to the academic sphere: the center intends to take these issues outside the university walls, through events and activities accessible to all. An inaugural event is already planned for next spring on a topical theme: mistrust in science. More info to come!

Ten members of UNamur's academic and scientific staff, accompanied by the International Relations Department and the NGO FUCID, the University Forum for International Development Cooperation, took part in an exploratory mission co-organized with UCAD. The mission was part of the university's drive to strengthen partnerships with the South, by promoting exchanges, raising researchers' awareness of the issues facing the global South, and helping new projects to emerge.

For a week, several activities were organized to enable members of the delegation to discover the Senegalese university: a visit to UCAD and discovery of its issues, exchanges around the concept of "One Health", meetings between researchers, a field visit and a closing moment in the presence of institutional partners.

Catherine Linard, professor at the Faculty of Sciences, was part of the Namur delegation "Going on site and exchanging with our Senegalese colleagues is very important. It allows us to discover the wealth of their research, in fields often directly connected to realities on the ground," she explains.

Since 2015, Catherine Linard has been collaborating with UCAD, notably as part of a research and development project supported by ARES. "From this initial collaboration a number of dynamics were born. Several Senegalese PhD students have come to Belgium to pursue their research. And conversely, one of my Belgian PhD students, Camille Morlighem, who is working on the creation of malaria risk maps in Senegal, has been able to benefit from mobility grants for research stays at UCAD. We've also established teaching exchanges: I went to Dakar to give a week's training to PhD students in geography, and a fellow health geographer, Aminata Niang Diène, comes to Belgium every year to speak in one of my master's courses," continues the professor.

The delegation brought together profiles from several UNamur faculties and departments:

• Francesca Cecchet, Faculty of Science, President of the NISM (Namur Institute of Structured Matter) Research Institute and member of the (NaRILIS Namur Research Institute for Life Sciences)
• Laurent Houssiau, Faculty of Science and member of the NISM (Namur Institute of Structured Matter) Research Institute
• Charles Nicaise, Faculty of Medicine and President of the NaRILIS Research Institute (Namur Research Institute for Life Sciences)
• Denis Saint-Amand, Faculty of Philosophy and Letters and member of the NaLTT Research Institute (Namur Institute of Language, Text and Transmediality)
• Laurent Ravez, Faculties of Medicine and Science and member of the NaRILiS (Namur Research Institute for Life Sciences) and EsPhiN (Espace Philosophique de Namur)
• Anne Vermeyen, member of the Cellule bien-être animal
• Flora Musuamba, Faculty of Medicine and member of the NaRILIS Research Institute (Namur Research Institute for Life Sciences)
• Florence Georges, Faculty of Law and member of the NaDI (Namur Digital Institute)
• Nathanaël Laurent, Faculty of Science and member of the EsPhiN (Espace Philosophique de Namur)
• Catherine Linard, Faculty of Science and member of the NaRILIS (Namur Research Institute for Life Sciences) and ILEE (Institute of Life-Earth-Environment)
• Rita Rixen, Director of FUCID, the University Forum for International Development Cooperation
• Amélie Schnock, member of the International Relations Department

Cet article est tiré de la rubrique "Far Away" du magazine Omalius de septembre 2024.

Professor in the Department of Sciences, Philosophies and Societies, Laurent Ravez is multiplying his collaborations with Madagascar. In 2005, he took part in an American research project funded by the National Institutes of Health. The aim? To train healthcare professionals in ethics. "The United States needed to establish ethics committees all over the world," Laurent Ravez explains. "This project began in the Democratic Republic of Congo before expanding to Madagascar. When I arrived in Madagascar in 2009, it was a real culture shock for me. I already knew Africa, but this is a different Africa, at the intersection of various cultures, including Asian influences," he confides. "On site, we worked with a public health institute, then a research center in the field of infectious diseases. For almost 15 years, we introduced groups of researchers and doctors to this discipline. This led to the creation of new ethics committees and the strengthening of existing ones."

This first contact with Madagascar paved the way for new projects. "ARES-CDD proposed that I join a research project via institutional support at the University of Antananarivo", continues the professor. Institutional support aims to provide a university with the resources it needs to achieve its own objectives. "Here, the aim is to build capacity and boost the university's research. So we've been working with doctoriales, which enable PhD students to present their projects in a few minutes, share them with their colleagues, and thus stimulate research. Our presence allows us to contribute our experience and advice, but it's a real sharing of skills with the locals," insists Laurent Ravez.

Deeply attached to Madagascar, Laurent Ravez travels there several times a year. "It was during one of my trips that I was offered the chance to go and meet Father Pedro," he recounts. "He's a very inspiring man, who has enabled thousands of destitute people to get out of poverty, notably by building schools and a free university. He is convinced that education and work enable people to free themselves from poverty".

Still in the brainstorming stage, a new collaboration could soon see the light of day. "I taught bioethics in the northwest of the country, where I had the opportunity to work with a Faculty of Dentistry. Dentition in Madagascar is of particular concern, and this has repercussions on people's health or even their ability to find work," exposes the professor. "On the island, dentists are quite badly regarded by the population, perceived as being contemptuous. The idea would then be to raise the ethical awareness of these health professionals, while developing a dental prevention project with them," enthuses the researcher.

"Our aim is therefore to assess the toxicity of microplastics present in Madagascan rivers, by measuring their impact on zebrafish. We thus seek to demonstrate whether abnormalities occur when these fish are exposed to microplastics, and we try to determine whether these abnormalities persist or resolve in subsequent years."

To conduct this research, Andry Rabezanahary divides his time between Madagascar, where he collects water and sediment samples, and Namur, where he carries out the analyses. "Microplastic is collected using a plankton net, left in the river for 4 to 5 hours. We then characterize the microplastics to observe their degradation in the environment. The particles are then micronized to sizes ranging from 1 to 50 micrometers, and exposed to fish. The aim of these experiments is to determine whether microplastics are capable of crossing the fish's intestinal barriers, spreading through their bodies and potentially causing disease.

Seven years ago, a project to support the implementation of the IWRM (Integrated Water Resources Management) approach in Madagascar with a view to sustainable development and climate resilience was launched in collaboration between UNamur, UClouvain, UAntananarivo, UAntsiranana and UToamasina. This project, funded by ARES under the name GIRE SAVA, focuses on the SAVA region, located in the north-east of Madagascar. Its ambition is to examine several key aspects of water management, including hydrological alterations, water quality, hydrogeological alterations and the implementation of an information system as part of water management.

"As a researcher in the GIRE SAVA project, I work mainly on water quality in the project's pilot basin: the Ankavia watershed. I'm exploring how anthropization of the basin, i.e. the transformation of the environment by human action, affects the physico-chemical quality of the water in the Ankavia river, as well as invertebrate and diatom communities in the water. We are also trying to assess how quickly the river manages to decompose the organic matter discharged into the water by conducting in-situ experiments", explains Hélène Voahanginirina, PhD student.

The laboratory work was carried out in Madagascar in close collaboration with a team in Namur, under the direction of Professor Frederik de Laender, promoter of the research project. Camille Carpentier, an expert in macroinvertebrate identification, played a key role in these analyses. The aim of this research was to analyze macroinvertebrate composition at ten different sites, at various times of the year, in order to develop a predictive model of community diversity. A model that would be based on several predictive factors, such as land use, landscape type, as well as various physico-chemical variables, such as water acidity and temperature.