Two NARILIS researchers awarded a Namur Research College (NARC) fellowship

As is the custom at the beginning of every academic year, the UNamur appointed the new Namur Research College (NARC) Fellows. These nominations acknowledge outstanding research achievements and follows a prestigious grant recently obtained by the awardees.

Two of the four newly elected NARC fellows are members of the NARILIS institute!

The appointment of Prof. Anne-Catherine Heuskin acknowledges her top-level research in the field of radiobiology and nanotechnology, and follows the Incentive Grant for Scientific Research (MIS) that she received from the FNRS end 2020. Her research focuses on the interaction of ionizing radiation with living matter. The case of charged particles is particularly interesting because of their increasingly widespread use in radiotherapy (proton, carbon ions or the emergence of a particle usage). Beyond the DNA-centric approach followed the last decades, her interests are rather oriented towards the response to radiation and radiosensitizing agents of certain organelles and the tumor microenvironment. Read more

The other NARILIS researcher appointed NARC fellow is Prof. Henri-François Renard, a high level expert in cell biology and more particularly in the field of endocytosis and membrane trafficking. In 2020, he was awarded a “Francqui Start-up Grant” from the Francqui Foundation and a MIS from the FNRS. His research aims to molecularly characterize new unconventional endocytic mechanisms (i.e. clathrin-independent) in mammalian cells, and to decipher their functions under pathophysiological conditions, such as cancer. In this context, he is particularly interested in the role of BAR (Bin/Amphiphysin/Rvs) domain proteins, which are key players in the detection/induction of membrane curvature. Read more

Thanks to their appointment as NARC fellows, Anne-Catherine Heuskin and Henri-François Renard will receive logistical support and institutional backup from the UNamur in order to pursue their work within a high-quality research environment. Their fellowships have started on the 1st of October 2021 for a period of 2 years.