Three ULiège projects selected for Welbio Investigator Program funding
As part of the Welbio Investigator Program call for projects, two FARAH projects and one GIGA project were selected for funding at the Université de Liège.
As a public university open to the world and is anchored in the scientific, cultural and economic development of its region, the University of Liège relies on its three pillars: teaching, research and civic engagement.
ULiège trains responsible citizens who are provided with cutting-edge knowledge and critical thinking, are able to share knowledge and can push forward an increasingly complex world.
ULiège develops and promotes excellence in research, multidisciplinary and direct engagement with its instruction.
Global exposure is a top priority at the University of Liège. The institution offers a wide range of international mobility opportunities to students, researchers and staff, enabling them to enhance their cross-disciplinary skills and language knowledge.
ULiège: an experience of daily living. Located in 3 cities and 4 campuses, the university is a key player in terms of the environment and mobility.
The awarding of the Francqui award highlights the quality of the work carried out by Dr Laureys and his Coma Science group team within the GIGI Consciousness.
D
octor of medicine, neurologist, Director of Research at F.R.S.-FNRS, Steven Laureys is one of the global specialists in altered states of consciousness in severely brain-damaged patients (coma, vegetative state, minimal state of consciousness, locked-in syndrome), as well as during anaesthesia, sleep and in the hypnotic state. He has given the medical world a new scale for assessing comas to make diagnoses more accurate for brain-damaged patients unable to interact. He is more generally interested in what happens in the brain in altered states of consciousness, which lead him to analyse brain function, for example in a state of meditation, prolonged apnoea, in astronauts after long stays in space, as well as in those having undergone an imminent death experience.
After Professor Michel Georges in 2008, he is the second winner of the Francqui award from the GIGA and the 15th from the University of Liège.
Created in 2007, the GIGA is a multidisciplinary research centre for biomedical sciences at the University of Liège focusing on cutting-edge medical innovation. Directly involved in the Liège CHU, this structure, unique in Belgium, based on multidisciplinary, has implemented an ecosystem inherent to excellent research applies for the benefit of patients. GIGA has over 500 researchers and boasts expertise in medical genomics, neurosciences, research against cancer, diseases related to infection and immunity, cardiovascular diseases and in silico medicine.
Pr Albert Corhay, Recteur de l’Université de Liège : « Ce Prix Francqui est une formidable reconnaissance mais surtout un encouragement pour le Pr Dr Steven Laureys, lequel a mis en place à Liège une structure de recherche académique et clinique de niveau mondial pour les comas et les états altérés de conscience, domaines qui sont à l’aube de nouvelles découvertes essentielles. Avec les recherches de Steven Laureys et de son équipe, le cerveau apparaît bien comme l’organe le plus fascinant de l’espèce humaine. »
Julien Compère, Administrateur délégué du CHU de Liège : « Le Dr Steven Laureys est un neurologue pour lequel recherche et pratique médicale ne font qu’un. Il incarne la médecine translationnelle que tout hôpital universitaire doit promouvoir afin de faire avancer plus vite et plus loin la qualité des soins donnés aux patients. Grâce à l’équipe médicale du Dr Steven Laureys, le service de neurologie du CHU de Liège est consulté par des familles du monde entier pour évaluer et suivre le coma de leurs proches. »
Pr Michel Georges, Directeur du GIGA-Recherche : « En octroyant à Steven Laureys ce prix prestigieux, la Fondation Francqui reconnaît "l’excellence académique de sa recherche biomédicale" … la devise du GIGA ! Au nom de la communauté du GIGA, félicitations et merci de montrer l'exemple Dr Laureys. »
2017 Steven Laureys | 1952 Florent-Joseph Bureau |
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2008 Michel Georges | 1950 Paul Harsin |
1989 Pierre Pestieau | 1949 Léon Rosenfeld |
1978 Jacques Nihoul | 1948 Zénon-M. Bacq |
1968 Jules Horrent | 1948 Pol Swings |
1964 Paul Ledoux | 1946 Marcel Florkin |
1961 Jules Duchesne | 1940 Pierre Nolf |
1956 Louis Remacle |
Didier Moreau, responsable presse, Université de Liège, dmoreau@uliege.be, +32 4 94 572 530
Louis Maraite, directeur communication, CHU de Liège, louis.maraite@chu.uliege.be, +32 4 99 543 891
As part of the Welbio Investigator Program call for projects, two FARAH projects and one GIGA project were selected for funding at the Université de Liège.
A "Sit-in liège students in solidarity for Palestine" is currently taking place at the University of Liège, on the Place du 20 août campus.
The seven partners of the Université de la Grande Région met at the Château de Colonster (ULiege campus) to take stock of current collaborations and outline the future of the consortium.