Communiqué de presse

MS-QUANTA is born

Inauguration d'une plateforme dédiée à la validation de nouveaux biomarqueurs


In Institution Research Press releases

Wallonia and the European ERDF funds are investing more than 2 million euros in MS-QUANTA, a platform dedicated to the validation of new biomarkers.

  • This new academic structure located in ULiège and UMONS provides Wallonia with important analytical capacities in a promising field, the role of biomarkers in the development of personalized medicine, industrial microbiology or food safety,...
  • The MS-QUANTA platform located in Mons and Liège, on both sides of Wallonia in basins with a high level of activity in biomedical research and biotechnology, is at the service of scientific research actors and companies.

Wallonia and the European FEDER funds are investing more than two million euros in the MS-QUANTA platform, a collaborative research structure aimed at improving the biomarker development chain in Wallonia. MS-QUANTA is based on two platforms of advanced scientific equipment perfectly complementary to the University of Mons (BioProfiling UMONS/ ULB) and the University of Liège (GIGA, ULiège). The structure meets the international requirements for the validation of biomarker candidates (molecular signatures, multiplexes), a priority research area supported by the European Commission.

A unique structure in Belgium

MS-QUANTA will strengthen the analytical capacity of all academic and industrial health stakeholders in Wallonia, enabling them to benefit from recent technological developments in the field of biomarker validation. The analytical platform will also be useful for other fast-growing scientific and economic sectors, in particular the agri-food (food safety), environment and industrial microbiology sectors. The provision of this unique structure in Belgium allows the Walloon actors concerned to position themselves advantageously in a field strongly supported by the European Horizon 2020 research and major equipment programme.

The original concept of "Labhotel" within MS-QUANTA will facilitate the provision of scientific equipment and skills to academic actors and companies, subject to prior reservation and training, on both sides of Wallonia in two regions bringing together the majority of the stakeholders in the biomedical and biotechnology sectors.

Within MS-QUANTA, ULiège's role will focus more specifically on proteomics guided by mass spectrometry imaging, a high-performance instrument for identifying and quantifying biomarkers. For their part, UMONS teams will develop liquid chromatography approaches essential for targeting proteins that are weakly present in the matrices analysed. A quality assurance system common to both sites of the platform will ensure the reliability of analytical methods.

Press contacts

At ULiège

At the UMons

  • Ruddy WATTIEZ
  • UMONS Press Office / +32(0)65 37 30 81 / valery.saintghislain@umons.ac.be

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