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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.

At UNamur's NARILIS Institute, the 'Stress and AGEing' (SAGE) research group, led by Professor Florence Chainiaux, is seeking to understand the biological processes involved in ageing, focusing on the interconnection between exposure to stress and cellular senescence.

Catherine Michaux, a qualified FNRS researcher, is a partner in the European MSCA-Doctoral Network PROSTAMET project. The special feature of this project is that it funds both research and the training of 9 doctoral students within a network of multidisciplinary experts.

In the course of 2021, 42% of Belgian companies suffered a cyber attack. Those targeting citizens are no less numerous: more than 4.5 million suspicious messages have been sent to Safeonweb, the government body responsible for informing Belgian citizens about computer security. More than ever, at a time when the geopolitical context reinforces the threat of a cyberwar, how can we cope? Jean-Noël Colin, cybersecurity expert, professor at the Faculty of Computer Science of UNamur and member of the NaDI Institute, gives us an explanation.

Increasingly sophisticated technologies are invading our spheres of activity without our prior consultation as citizens. Shouldn't the new digital tools, artificial intelligence or technologies resulting from progress in neuroscience, which are transforming our identity and social relationships, be the subject of broad and sufficiently informed democratic debates? This question is at the heart of the international "research-action" project "A new humanism in the age of neuroscience and artificial intelligence" in which UNamur is participating.

In 1996, the European Union created the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), a set of prestigious and competitive grants designed to fund research. Thanks to her, the PROSTAMET project got underway on January 1, an ambitious program focused on training PhD students and discovering new therapeutic avenues against prostate cancer, in which UNamur is participating.

The Ten-years Most Influential Paper award has just been presented to three members of UNamur's Faculty of Computer Science: Xavier Devroey, Gilles Perrouin and Maxime Cordy. The award recognizes the paper published ten years previously that has had the greatest impact on the research community. It was awarded at the 18th edition of the International Working Conference on Variability Modelling of Software-Intensive Systems (VAMOS '24), which took place in early February in Bern, Switzerland..

The University of Namur is involved in the European CERTAINTY project, an initiative led by the German Fraunhofer Institute to explore new avenues in cancer treatment. Launched in December 2023, this European consortium is funded by the European Union - Horizon Europe program - to the tune of almost 10 million euros over the next 4.5 years.

TEF-Health: Testing and Experimentation Facilities for Health AI and Robotics is a major European project aimed at the rapid adoption of solutions based on artificial intelligence and robotics in the medical sector. UNamur, with the expertise of its Centre de Recherche Information Droit et Société (CRIDS), is a partner in this project.

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 annual conference of Trail, the structure that brings together all artificial intelligence researchers in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, and entitled "Inclusion, Parcimony and Plurality: the Future of AI?", was held at UNamur on May 14. 150 participants came to listen to a particularly rich and varied program.

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.