NARILIS postdoctoral researcher Louise Thines awarded funding by the King Baudouin Foundation

NARILIS postdoctoral researcher Louise Thines awarded funding by the King Baudouin Foundation

The King Baudouin Foundation supports biomedical research in all its forms, from lab discoveries to clinical applications. It currently manages 335 health-related Funds, including 179 dedicated specifically to biomedical research and development. These funds address a wide range of disease areas and reflect society’s growing concerns, from the rapid increase in conditions such as cancer and Alzheimer’s disease, to the many unmet needs surrounding rare or lesser-known disorders.

In 2023–2024, 137 of these Funds allocated more than 16 million € to support biomedical research, enabling 161 research projects to be launched or continued. Among the laureates was Dr. Louise Thines, postdoctoral researcher at UNamur-NARILIS. In 2024, she received 15.000 € from the Fund Suzanne Duchesne, Serge Rousseau and Doctor Jean Gerard, to carry out her groundbreaking research project “Identification of cellular regulators and pharmacological inhibitors of endophilin-A3 to manipulate unconventional endocytosis.”

Louise Thines is a bioengineer with a PhD in Molecular biology & Biochemistry. She joined the team of Prof. Henri-François Renard in June 2024 thanks to a Marie Skłodowska Curie (MSCA) postdoctoral fellowship. Her research aims to uncover the mechanisms regulating unconventional endocytosis, and, in the longer term, to identify pharmacological inhibitors of these pathways. By advancing our understanding of endocytic processes in pathophysiological contexts, such as cancer cell migration and viral infection, her work may ultimately open the door to new therapeutic applications. Read more on Louise Thines’ research field in their latest review published in the journal Cellular and Molecular Life Sciences: Xu and Rigaux et al., 2025

This award is a remarkable recognition for a promising scientist, and a first for the UNamur. On November 27th, 2025, the laureates were celebrated during a festive ceremony in Brussels attended by Princess Astrid.

Congratulations Louise !