Successful PhD Student Day highlighting the achievements of LIBST and NARILIS doctoral researchers

On September 11, 2025, Namur hosted the annual UCLouvain-UNamur PhD Student Day, bringing together doctoral students from LIBST and NARILIS. The event provided a lively platform for inter-university exchange and a great opportunity to showcase the cutting-edge life sciences research conducted by our young researchers.

The programme featured 20 oral communications in which PhD students shared their latest findings and innovative developments. Additionally, 39 posters were presented during two highly interactive poster sessions, fostering rich discussions and constructive feedback.

A joint jury from both institutes awarded three prizes to recognize remarkable contributions:

🏆 Best Oral Communication to Luca Goffin, PhD student at UCLouvain in the team of Prof. Frédéric Clotman, for his short talk entitled “Contribution of ventral spinal interneurons to the etiopathogenesis of Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis”.

🏆 Best Poster Presentation to Emma De Jonge, PhD student at UCLouvain in the team of Prof. René Rezsohazy, for her poster was entitled " The stability of the HOXA1 transcription factor as a determinant in the control of cardiac development”.

🏆 Best Poster Presentations to Romane Vandevelde, PhD student at UCLouvain in the team of Prof. François Chaumont, for her poster entitled “Inhibition of transgene silencing in Nicotiana tabacum BY-2 cells via RDR gene inactivation and targeted demethylation”.

Congratulations to all participants for their excellent contributions. Special thanks to the UNamur Special Research Fund and the event sponsors (Bioké, Elscolab and CliniSciences) for their support!

Local organizers : Prof. Thierry Arnould and Prof. Henri-François Renard