Coraline Radermecker, PhD in Veterinary Medicine and Fund for Scientific Research – FNRS Research Associate at the GIGA Immunophysiology Laboratory of the ULiège, received the prestigious Baillet Latour Biomedical Award, worth one million euros, on 30 April 2025. This prize, awarded annually since 2022, recognises promising biomedical research and aims to support the career of a talented young Belgian researcher for five years. With this 2025 prize, the Baillet Latour Fund is supporting Coraline Radermecker's work in the field of respiratory physiology, and in particular the role of pulmonary neutrophils.
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ince her PhD thesis, Coraline Radermecker has been interested in the innate immune system's responses to various environmental factors in the context of allergic asthma and respiratory viral infections. More specifically, she is shedding light on a little-known population of our immune system, pulmonary neutrophils, and their role in regulating blood vessels in both healthy and diseased lungs.
Every day, our bodies produce around 100 billion neutrophils. Long confined to a frontline role in fighting infection, these white blood cells are now revealing a more subtile function. Up to 50% of them accumulate naturally in the capillaries of the lungs, forming a mysterious ‘pulmonary marginal pool’. Coraline Radermecker is seeking to understand why these cells settle there, how they interact with the endothelial cells of the vessels, and what functions they perform, even in the absence of disease.
Coraline Radermecker is first seeking to decipher the mechanisms by which neutrophils influence vascular dynamics in healthy lungs, then to analyse how these interactions evolve in pathological contexts in order to identify new therapeutic targets for diseases associated with vascular dysfunction.
This pioneering research could transform our understanding of neutrophils by distinguishing their beneficial or harmful roles depending on the situation. It paves the way for innovative treatments for inflammatory, metabolic and neurodegenerative diseases.
Driven by a passion for research that was sparked by Professor Fabrice Bureau, Coraline Radermecker is continuing her work as principal investigator along with Professor Thomas Marichal, also a winner of the Baillet Latour Biomedical Award in 2022, at the Immunophysiology Laboratory of GIGA ULiège.
The Baillet Latour Biomedical Award was presented to Coraline Radermecker on 30 April 2025 in the presence of Her Majesty the Queen. Professor Michel Moutschen, Vice-Rector for Research, represented Rector Anne-Sophie Nyssen.
The Biomedical Award is organised and administered in close collaboration with the Fund for Scientific Research – FNRS and the FWO. A jury of five international experts evaluates the applications and selects the winner independently.
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