Nb. 14 - June 24, 2025 - Some exciting news for an inspiring summer!

This edition is filled with many new features, highlighting the evolution of the platform network and its equipment, as well as research breakthroughs.

The platform network continues to grow with the launch of SYSBIOL, a new platform dedicated to Systems Biology in the field of health sciences.
In this edition, we also take a closer look at the work of the Specialized Psychological Consultations (CPS) platform.

On the research side, we spotlight a promising new compound in the fight against cancer, the health potential of purple bacteria, an innovative anti-corrosion supermaterial, and cutting-edge equipment now available across several platforms.

A few quick updates: a new logo, a PhD opportunity, a LEAF Silver certification, the arrival of two new team members, and renewed momentum around equipment management and booking tool.

There’s a lot to discover in this summer edition — so we’ll let you jump right in!

Enjoy the read, and have a fantastic summer!

The Platform Community

Picture credit : Aurore Delsoir

Do not hesitate to share this initiative and relay it to your networks, so an ever-growing audience can stay informed about the UCLouvain platforms!


Platforms

A new platform ...

The Systems Biology (SYSBIOL) platform, the result of a collaboration between the IREC, LDRI, and DDUV institutes, as well as the Cliniques universitaires Saint-Luc, offers its expertise and technical support to help understand the pathogenesis of diseases using blood plasma samples. This is achieved by integrating multi-omics data with clinical phenotypes and, where applicable, environmental data.
Contact: Pr Laure Elens
More >

... and a focus on the Specialised Psychological Consultations

Their expertise?
High Potential – Life history – Neuropsychology and logopaedics – Clinical orthopaedagogy – Psychoanalysis and person-centered therapy – Emotion-focused therapy


Their goal?
To provide a quality service to the public in recognized areas of expertise, and to enable research into clinical or specific populations.

Consultations Psychologiques Spécialisées
Psychological interventions and understanding of adaptive and maladaptive psychological behaviours.

Research and innovation

MASSPROT : supporting cancer research
 
Thanks to the HDx-MS technology recently developed within the MASSPROT platform, a team of researchers from UCLouvain and the University of Lille has just made a major breakthrough in cancer research by developing a revolutionary new compound : LIBX-A401.
 

Proteomic & protein analysis by mass spectrometry Scientific and technical advice for identification and quantification by mass spectrometry of proteins from complex samples. Contact LLN site
Contact Woluwé site

Assessing the beneficial effects of purple bacteria on human health: CICN at the heart of the action
The European project Purple4Life, coordinated by UMONS, is exploring a promising solution: using purple bacteria to produce innovative, nutrient-rich, and environmentally friendly ingredients.
The participation of CICN will focus primarily on assessing the beneficial effects of purple bacteria on human health through the implementation of a multicenter interventional clinical study.

Center of Investigation in Clinical Nutrition
Clinical nutrition studies
to assess the benefit of food supplements or food on human health

Contact

The LACAMI and WINFAB platforms contribute to the creation of a new anti-corrosion supermaterial

This coating offers the highest known combination of strength, ductility (deformability), and toughness (resistance to crack propagation), while also providing excellent corrosion resistance.

Analysis, characterization and processing laboratory
• Processing of materials (metallic materials and polymers)

• Chemical analysis
• Microstructural characterisation
Contact

Micro- and nanofabrication platform • Cleanroom
• Thin-films deposition, thin-films etching, surface patterning, micromachining and back-end processes
Contact

Equipment

WELCOME: installation of optoelectronic and multiphysics equipment underway

With a new dedicated space - the first step in a major reorganization of the platform -WELCOME aims to better align technical resources with the needs of researchers and companies.
Stay connected to the WELCOME management tool to follow the progress of the infrastructure updates.
A Welcome 2.0 is coming to life!

Wallonia ELectronics & COmmunications MEasurements
• Service and expertise in electromagnetic characterisation of materials, devices, sensors, circuits, systems

• Access to characterisation infrastructure
• Equipment rental
Contact

New Equipment as Part of the Plan de Relance with the support of

Flow visualization and optical diagnostics: CREDEM at the cutting edge of technology!

The newly acquired equipment enable, for example, the measurement of velocity fields (PIV), temperature or concentration fields (LIF), as well as the tracking and reconstruction of bubbles, droplets, or particles - all in 2D or 3D (volumetric fields).

Prototyping platform Prototypes tailored to meet specific needs in a large variety of research areas: robotics, mechatronics, bioengineering, fluid mechanics, process engineering, thermodynamics, and energy
Contact

MOCA: new capabilities for the analysis of low-polarity compounds, isomers, thermolabile substances ... and fibers

By coupling a new mass spectrometer with an existing UPC2 system, the MOCA platform is now equipped to analyze low-polarity compounds, isomers, and thermolabile substances - especially represented in fields such as green chemistry, bioenergy, and in the analysis of lipids, polymers, and pharmaceutical products.

With the acquisition of the Gerhardt Fibertherm which allows the estimation of hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin content, the MOCA platform expands its capabilities to assess the nutritional value of food, characterize biomass in the field of bioenergy, and analyze the composition of tree leaves and litter.

Mineral and Organic Chrmical Analysis
• Chemical analysis of mineral and organic constituents of complex matrices: soil, water, plants, food, waste, biotechnology

News express

Equipment management, inventory and reservation system undergoes extensive testing!
As mentioned in previous editions, the CREDEM, MiiL, MOCA and WELCOME platforms, as well as the technical unit of the Environmental Sciences division of the Earth and Life Institute, have already adopted the tool and are actively encoding their equipment.
12 other structures are currently carrying out tests, and are active in the fields of Science and Technology (CRC, FERM, LACAMI, LEMSC, MASSPROT (LLN), MICA, MOUV, P2C, SEFY platforms), or Health (2IP and CytoFlux platforms, as well as the Human neuroscience techniques unit of the IONS institute).

A new logo for the MOUV platform
Mechanics, Tooling, Machining & Glassworking
• Prototyping in mechanics or glasswork
• Technical advice
• Development of custom devices for vacuum technology
• CAD/CAM/CAE programming
• Working with Borosilicate 3.3 and quartz glass
Contact

CENTAL Offers a PhD Scholarship

The topic?
The normalization and automated correction of learner-written texts.

Center for Natural Language Processing
Expertise in the computer processing of textual data
Contact

A new LEAF label for a platform

After earning the bronze level, the IREC Animal Facility was awarded the silver LEAF accreditation on May 6, as part of the Laboratory Efficiency Assessment Framework, which promotes sustainability standards in research laboratories.


Welcome!
Nearly 300 people are working on a daily basis within the UCLouvain platforms. Discover those who have joined this community in the last 3 months!

Alvy Lamotte is hired as clinical study coordinator at CICN

He will primarily oversee an interventional study aiming to test the synergistic effectiveness of a prebiotic and postbiotic-based dietary supplement on gut comfort, as part of the SYNFOOD project.
In parallel, he will also contribute to the setup and monitoring of other clinical studies, as well as consumer testing.

Valentin Marchal-Marchant has been coordinating the LACAMI platform since April 2025
A civil engineer in chemistry and materials science and a PhD in engineering sciences, Valentin initially worked as a senior researcher on applied research projects.
In addition to coordinating the team, he provides technical support, consultancy, and solution development, primarily experimental, in the field of materials science research, with a specific focus on manufacturing processes, shaping, production, and various treatments.

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