Chaire Collen-Francqui - Program

16:00 - 17:30
FORUM AB
Campus de la Plaine

“Learn from nature and our ancestors”
Some examples will be given concerning medicinal plants and how plants interact with their environment, including the effects on plant metabolism. Bioprospecting, the search for novel medicines, nutraceuticals, cosmetics and crop protection will be dealt with. What can we expect in terms of novel products or methods?

17h30 – 20h : Reception in the FORUM AB hall - registration prior to May 17th.

16:30 – 17:00
FORUM AB
Campus de la Plaine

"Pharmacognosy : Mother of all pharmaceutical disciplines"
In the 1970”s, the pharmacognosy groups in The Netherlands (Groningen, Utrecht and Leiden) had a number of meetings, starting in 1975, where we tried to come to a new definition of our field. An important spin-off of these discussions was the collaboration with our Belgium colleagues from Gent, Antwerpen, Liege and Brussels, which resulted in the LOF (Landelijk Overleg Farmacognosie). We had a successful series of single day symposia, which eventually also included several other groups working on plant secondary metabolites. The individual groups each had their own niche in the huge field of pharmacognosy and all played an important role in the field with interesting projects, covering bioprospecting, plant biotechnology, biosynthesis and phytochemical analysis.

17h – 19h : Reception n the FORUM AB hall - Registration required within this internet link

16:00 – 17:30
FORUM E
Campus de la Plaine

“Natural Deep Eutectic Solvents”
The metabolomics brought us to the discovery of the NAtural Deep Eutectic Solvents (NADES). Common primary metabolites are found in large amounts in cells. Often they are present in about similar molar concentrations as we can learn from NMR-based metabolomics. That raised the question: Could these mixtures be deep eutectic mixtures? Simple experiments with various molar ratios of such mixtures indeed gave stable liquids. This opened the gate towards further research showing the presence of NADES in various types of biological functions and in a number of applications, among others in cosmetics.

12:15 – 13:45
FORUM E
Campus de la Plaine

"Natural Products Biosynthesis”
The knowledge regarding biosynthesis itself and its regulation, like the signal transductions pathways involved, can be used for different purposes:.. by controlling these pathways, one might be able to make plants more resistant against pests and diseases and the biosynthesis of certain crucial compounds may be targets for antibiotics.

12:30 – 14:00
FORUM G
Campus de la Plaine

"Do negative results exist ? ”
Please try to answer this question for yourself and write in a few sentences your view and send this prior to seminar to robertverpoorte@hotmail.com. With some examples I will show you my answer. Particularly I will deal with Metabolomics, a powerful tool that has developed in a major tool for the chemical characterization of a phenotype. This can be used for developing markers for e.g. diseases, or identify compounds connected with the resistance of plants against pests and diseases. A problem is the lack of analytical chemistry expertise in the field. This may cause confusion in the interpretation of the data.