Can Gut Microbes act as medicine for obesity and diabetes?

On the evening of Tuesday 26 May 2026 the section welcomed Professor Patrice Cani from the Universite Catholique de Louvan (UCLouvain) to talk about the role of gut microbes and obesity. Professor Cani gave an overview of the current state of the societal problems posed by obesity and its long-term treatment, including his research on the role of gut bacteria.

Patrice pointed out that you are not alone in your own body. Trillions of bacteria live inside you  and when they falter, the consequences reach well beyond your gut.

Over the past twenty years, researchers have discovered that an imbalanced gut microbiota allows bacterial toxins to seep into the bloodstream, triggering the chronic inflammation that drives insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes, a condition now affecting more than 600 million people worldwide.

The story, however, is one of discovery rather than doom. Dietary fibres feed gut bacteria that release GLP-1 a gut hormone regulating appetite and blood sugar. More recently, a serendipitous finding has showed that bacteria also convert dietary choline into a molecule (TMA)  that physically blocks the master switch of inflammation inside our cells. Obesity and diabetes, long thought inseparable, can in fact be decoupled.

A newly described bacterium, Dysosmobacter welbionis, present in up to 95% of healthy adults but depleted in diabetic patients, independently stimulates GLP-1, reduces liver fat and improves blood sugar without any weight loss.

The gut microbiota is not a fixed destiny. It responds within days to what we eat and how we move. Eating varied fibres and limiting ultra-processed foods are, at the molecular level, investments in the ecosystem that regulates our metabolism every day.

We are not simply what we eat. We are what our microbes make of what we eat.

About the speaker

Patrice Cani is full professor of Physiology, Metabolism and Nutrition and leads a research team at the Louvain Drug Research Institute (LDRI) at the University of Louvain (UCLouvain) in Belgium and is Visiting Professor at Imperial College London at the Faculty of Medicine, Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction in London.

He is honorary research director at the Belgian Fund for Scientific Research (FRS-FNRS) and WELRI (WELBIO) investigator. After a B.Sc. degree in dietetics, he joined the Faculty of Medicine of UCLouvain where he received a M.Sc. in Nutrition, another M.Sc. in Health Sciences, and a PhD in Biomedical Sciences (physiology, metabolism and nutrition).

In 2007, Patrice published the discovery of the concept of metabolic endotoxemia, and more recently, he discovered the beneficial role of the bacteria Akkermansia muciniphila on obesity and cardiometabolic risk factors. Last year, he contributed to the identification of a novel bacterium, Dysosmobacter welbionis, impacting on glucose metabolism, inflammation and cancer. His main research interests are the investigation of interactions between gut microbes and host in the context of obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiometabolic disorders and cancer.

He is recipient of prestigious grants, including two ERC grants, and multiple prizes including the “Baillet Latour Grant for Medical Research” (2015), the “International Prize of Physiology Lucien Dautrebande” (2016), the "Award for Excellence in Biomedical Research and Creativity" from the joint scientific committee of the Academies of Medicine of Belgium and France and the Council of the JA DeSève Research Chair of Québec (2019), and the Prize for Biomedical Research (The AstraZeneca Foundation & KAGB/ARMB) (2022).

He has been elevated at the rank of Officer of the Walloon Merit (O.M.W.) and was elected as member of the Royal Academy of Medicine of Belgium since 2016. He also received the Bauchau Chair at UNamur (2016) and the Francqui Chair at ULiège (2017).

He is author/co-author of more than 400 scientific research publications, reviews and book chapters and ranked in the top 1% world-class researcher selected for his exceptional research performance and citations in the world (source Clarivate), h-index 121 and cited more than 75 750 times (Scopus, November 2025).

Patrice’s motto is: “In Gut We Trust”.

Organic (Total) Synthesis: past, present, and future

On Tuesday 28 April 2026 the section welcomed Professor Ari Koskinen to the British School of Brussels (BSB) in Tervuren for a talk entitled 'Organic (Total) Synthesis: past, present, and future'. 

The era of natural product total synthesis arose at the beginning of the 20th century. As the number of natural product targets of increasingly complex molecular architecture rapidly increased in connection with the development of reaction theory, chemical reagents, and analytical and laboratory techniques, total synthesis of natural products was once considered the highest achievement of organic synthesis. Thus, the state of the art of organic chemical synthesis was often defined by the complexity of the target structures that could be produced in an efficient manner.

The value of total synthesis has been challenged many times, sometimes even claiming that the era of synthesis is over. Recent developments in machine learning, artificial intelligence, robotics, and laboratory automation are often quoted as challenging the need for total synthesis. In this brief talk Professor Koskinen will try to highlight the lifespan, present state, and future outlook of total synthesis. Will there be a need for total synthesis in the future?

As usual, the talk and was free to all and was followed by our usual social networking with drinks and light snacks.

Ari Koskinen received his M.Sc. (Chem. Eng.) in 1979, his Licentiate in Technology in 1982 and his Doctor of Technology in 1983 from the Helsinki University of Technology.

After postdoctoral studies at the University of California, Berkeley he accepted an appointment as a Project Leader in New Drug Development at Orion Corporation – Fermion, Finland where his research group was among the first in Scandinavia to adopt computer aided drug design as well as computerised database handling protocols in new lead identification. Returning to academia, he joined the University of Surrey as a lecturer in 1989 and was then appointed as Professor of Chemistry (especially Synthetic Organic Chemistry) at the University of Oulu, Finland in 1992, and transferred to the Helsinki University of Technology in 1999 (Aalto University since 2010) as Professor of Organic Chemistry.

Professor Koskinen is a member of the Finnish Academy of Sciences and Letters since 2003. He is the author or co-author of some 190 publications, 15 patents and three books. He retired from active academic work in October 2021, but as emeritus professor, he keeps his finger on the pulse of organic chemistry through activities in IUPAC (President, Division of Organic and Biomolecular Chemistry) and EuChemS (past secretary, Division of Organic Chemistry). He is also a member of the RSC Belgium committee.

Ari's talk was videoed and you can enjoy it again either via the embedded video below or on our dedicated RSC Belgium YouTube Channel.

Perfume-making: At the Crossroads of Science and Art

Our 2026 programme of public talks started on the evening of Tuesday 3 March 2026 when the section welcomed Magali Klepper, olfactive designer, perfumer and founder of Magali K, Tous Nez Quelque Part to explore the sensory world of perfumes, fragrances and the science behind the scents.  

Magali spent her childhood in the Ardennes countryside, immersed in the scents and aromas of nature. From an early age, she cultivated a herb garden and collected perfume samples. Her career in the healthcare and pharmaceutical industries took her on journeys around the world, where she expanded her olfactory experience.

Eight years ago, she decided to devote herself to her childhood passion and reinvent herself in the world of scents and fragrance. She went to study perfumery in Paris, and very quickly, the desire to share her passion led her to develop her business project.

Magali's talk was very interactive with the audience invited to compare and contrast difference scent elements and notes form the perfumer's palate. 

The talk took place in the Social Area above the Brel Theatre at the British School of Brussels (BSB) in Tervuren and was followed by drinks and light refreshments that allowed audience members to ask Magali many more more questions about teh art and science of perfumery.

Magali's talk was videoed and you can enjoy it again either via the embedded video below or on our dedicated RSC Belgium YouTube Channel.

2026 RSC Belgium Annual General Meeting and Annual Dinner

The RSC Belgium Section 2026 Annual General Meeting (AGM) and Annual Dinner took place on Friday 23 January 2026 at Les Amis Dinent Restaurant, Chaussee de Malines/ Mechelsesteenweg 113, 1970 Wezembeek-Oppem.

The meeting commenced at 19h35 and was chaired by Section Secretary Prof Bob Crichton in the absence of Section Chair Tim Reynolds who had to attend a family funeral in the UK.

Seven section members were present: David Terrell, Robert Crichton, Julie Tuppeny, Susan Schamp, Fabio Lucaccioni, Ludovic Troian-Gautier, and Axhentila Mpali.Co-opted committee member Bo Dahlqvist was also present.

Eleven section members who were unable to attend the AGM sent their apologies and had asked the Chair of the meeting to act as their proxy for the meeting if a vote was required. These members were: Tim Reynolds, Wim De Borggraeve, Steven De Feyter, Richard Green, Ari Koskinen, Dirk Vanderzande, James Franklin, Mike Wijnhoven, Koen Clays, Robert Markowski, and Rashmi Singh.

 The draft minutes of the meeting are posted below for your nformation.

1. Apologies for absence

No further apologies had been received.

2. Approval of Minutes of 2025 AGM

No corrections were suggested, and the meeting moved and unanimously adopted the minutes.

4. Committee Report on the Section’s 2025 Activities (Bob Crichton – Secretary)

The Secretary presented the 2025 Committee report.

“During 2025 RSC Belgium organised five public evening lectures (most of which were recorded and posted on our @RoySocChemBelgium YouTube channel) and held a Café Chimique on aspects of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and healthcare.

The year kicked off , as usual with our 2025 AGM and Annual Dinner on the evening of Friday 19 January at Les Amis Dinent restaurant in Wezembeek-Oppem. At the AGM Tim Reynolds was elected as Section Chair, Bob Crichton was elected as Section Secretary and Fabio Lucaccioni was elected as Treasurer. In addition, Julie Tuppeny, Rita Woodward, and Susan Schamp were elected as committee members. Other committee members in mid-term were David Terrell and Ari Koskinen.

During the year, your section committee met only twice: on 14 January and 29 November but stayed connected via email and social media.

The 2025 talks programme commenced on 4 February with Professor Bob Crichton giving an enlightening talk entitled 'How Gaming theory helped solve Protein Structure Prediction – an overview of the 2024 Nobel Prize for Chemistry'. This was followed on 27 March with the return to Belgium of Professor Andrea Sella of University College London to give us his renowned 'Strange Ice' talk.

On 29 April we welcomed Professor Frank Vanhaecke from Ghent University to talk about ‘ICP-mass spectrometry in the biomedical sciences: pushing the boundaries of the application range’. Frank had received the RSC’s prestigious ‘Theophilus Redwood award’ in 2023 for outstanding contributions to the chemical sciences in the area of analytical chemistry. Our first half of the year was completed with a Café Chimique on Artificial Intelligence (AI) on 13 May featuring two pioneering entrepreneurs of the use of AI in healthcare: Dr Dani Manjah from Professor Benoit Macq's research group at the Ecole Polytechnique de Louvain, and Thibaut Helleputte, founder and CEO of DNAlytics.

Sadly, over the summer we lost one of the section’s founding members and the leading light of our work with schools in Belgium: Rita Woodward. Rita served on the RSC Belgium section committee continuously from its founding in the early 1990s until her passing. In 2010 Rita had received an RSC Award for Service to recognise her outstanding support for the work of the society. We will miss her very much. A social event for Rita was held to remember and celebrate Rita’s life in early October.

Our activities resumed on 30 September with a talk from Professor Gwenhaël de Wasseige from the Universite Catholique de Louvain about her exciting work on neutrinos and other astronomical phenomena. And our final event of the year was a pre-Halloween treat on 28 October with science writer Victoria Atkinson telling us about ‘Witchcraft’s chemical secrets: the science behind the spells’.

Unfortunately, during the year, we were not able to organise our annual Chemistry Challenge competition nor a Top of the Bench (ToTB) type event. But our 2024 ToTB winners, Team Solvay from St Georges School in Luxembourg, were able to represent Belgium at the last ever ToTB final in the UK that took place on 22 March at Cardiff University. We hope to revive our schools’ events during 2026.

Just before the AGM we received news of the last two students who will receive awards from our Dr Norman Lloyd Scholarship Fund at Cardiff University. They are Caitlin Nghiem and Jesyka Dunn who are both in the final year of their MChem degrees and are exceptional students. The scholarship scheme ran from 2014 to 2025 and was closed in 2025 with the agreement of Norman’s family and the university.

Our YouTube channel continued to grow during the year with some 506 subscribers and our ‘content’ continues to prove extremely popular. Our all time ‘Top Three’ videos (as of the end of 2025) remain, as last year, at #3 Philip Ball with 1,830 views, in second spot Plasma-based CO2 conversion with 9,520 views, while Nick Lane remains top of the pops with a remarkable 25,546 views. Our post popular video posted in 2025 was the ‘Gaming theory to Protein structure’ talk from February with some 247views.

We aim to run a full programme of events during 2026, but we need to inspire more of our local members to help organise our events and activities. Details of forthcoming events can always be found on the RSC Belgium blog.”

There were no questions on the report, and the meeting moved and unanimously approved its adoption.

5. Financial Report for 2025 (Fabio Lucaccioni – Treasurer)

The treasurer presented the 2025 financial report and accounts.

“The 2025 financial statements have been prepared with revenues and expenditures classified according to categories predefined by the RSC Headquarters.

• Current Account Balance (Year-End 2025): € 4,529.85

• Net Expenses (Receipts minus Payments): € 1,417.25

• Savings Account Balance (Year-End 2025): € 4,549.98

Extraordinary Event – Bank Error:

During the summer 2024, our banking partner (ING) erroneously issued a debit card linked to the RSC account to our Chairman, Professor Crichton. This administrative error resulted in unintentional use of the card by Professor Crichton for personal transactions. Upon identifying the issue, the bank issued a formal apology. Professor Crichton, unaware of the card’s linkage to the RSC account, immediately reimbursed all expenses following a request from the Treasurer. Reimbursement was completed in two instalments due to an oversight in the initial bank statement reconciliation. The residual amount was cleared in early 2025 (€264.82).

Income Overview:

Total Income (2025): €4,654.83

Key income sources:

• Grant from RSC Headquarters: €4,000.00

• Revenue from Annual Dinner

• Reimbursement from Professor R. Crichton – Bank Error

• Interest from the Deposit Account

Expenditure Overview:

Total Expenses (2025): €3,237.58

Breakdown of key expenses:

1. Annual Dinner after AGM: €757.50

2. Six Lectures – 200 attendees:

o BSB Auditorium venue hire : €496.00

o Speakers travel, accommodation, gift and bank charges: €1,984.08

Audit Compliance: As the total annual income is below £10,000.00, the accounts are not subject to external audit.”

 The meeting moved and unanimously approved adoption of the Treasurer’s report.

 6. Chair’s Remarks (Bob Crichton in Tim Reynold’s absence)

On behalf of the Chair Bob Crichton thanked all members of the committee for their continuing hard work and support and looked forward to this continuing during 2026.

The loss of Rita during the year had been very sad and a great loss to the section in particular her ideas and enthusiasm for the section’s activities with schools would be greatly missed. It would be important to recruit some new members to support the activities of the committee.

Bob said that the programme for 2026 was in formulation and the first talks of the year would the announced in the near future.

7. Election of committee members and section officers

The following nominations had been received for election to the committee. There were three vacancies for committee members.

Nominations for Committee Members: David Terrell, Ludovic Troian-Gautier, Ari Koskinen

All positions are for a two-year term. As the number of nominations equalled the number of vacant positions, all candidates were duly elected.

Other committee members in mid-term are Tim Reynolds (Section Chair), Bob Crichton (Section Secretary), Fabio Lucaccioni (Section Treasurer), Julie Tuppeny and Susan Schamp.

At the first committee meeting of 2026 Bo Dahlqvist will be co-opted onto the committee.

8. Auditing arrangements

As noted above as the section turnover did not exceed £10 000 then RSC rules indicate that no formal audit is required before the accounts are submitted to HQ.

9. Any Other Business

There was no AOB and the meeting adjourned at 19h50.

The meeting was followed by the Section Annual Dinner. Images below.

Final awards from the Norman Lloyd fund confirmed

Just before our 2026 AGM the section received news of the last two students to receive support from our Dr Norman Lloyd Scholarship Fund at Cardiff University. The two are Caitlin Nghiem and Jesyka Dunn who were both in the final year of their MChem degrees and are described as exceptional students by the university.

The two students have now sent messages of thanks to the section and Norman’s family.

Jesyka Dunn said: “I would like to sincerely thank you for awarding me the Dr Norman Lloyd Scholarship. I am very grateful for your generous support and for the recognition of my Placement Project.

My placement was in process and green chemistry, which is the area I plan to continue in as I begin my PhD studies this September. Through this experience, I saw how bench chemistry can be translated into real-world solutions and how chemistry can play a vital role in improving sustainability. This has reinforced my motivation to pursue a career in this field.

Thank you once again to the Royal Society of Chemistry for your support and encouragement.”

Caitlin Nghiem said: “I would like to express my gratitude to the Royal Society of Chemistry Belgium for awarding me the Dr Norman Lloyd Scholarship in recognition of my placement project. My industrial year at Dycotec Materials Ltd was both challenging and transformative, giving me the opportunity to fully immerse myself in an industry environment. I am grateful for the opportunity to explore a range of engaging project areas within materials for the printed electronics sector, allowing me to complete my placement project with enthusiasm and scientific curiosity. I am honoured to have had received this award in recognition of my work during the year, and I am deeply grateful for the support it provides for me as I approach the completion of my MChem degree.

Chemistry has always inspired me because of its value in day-to-day life to innovative technological solutions. This scholarship will help me continue developing these interests by supporting opportunities that strengthen my scientific training and broaden my experience. Being recognised for my placement project has also been incredibly encouraging, giving me greater confidence in my academic and practical abilities. I am grateful for this support as it enables me to pursue research with meaningful societal and environmental impact while I begin exploring the different pathways at the beginnings of my career journey.”

The two students shared the final award from the fund of £132.

“I cannot understate how impactful support like yours is – as you can see in both of these testimonials, the award gives financial aid but more than that a huge boost in confidence and motivation," commented Dr Esther Liu, Legacies and in Memoriam Officer at Cardiff University.

The scholarship

The Norman Lloyd scholarship was set up by RSC Belgium in collaboration with Norman’s family and Cardiff University in memory of our old friend and supporter Norman Lloyd. Norman was himself a student at an institution that is now part of the university. The funds raised provided an annual scholarship of £1,000 for an undergraduate student, usually in their first year of study, at the Cardiff School of Chemistry.

The scholarship scheme ran from 2014 to 2025 and was closed in 2025 with the agreement of Norman’s family and the university.

Witchcraft’s chemical secrets: the science behind the spells

There be witches here! As a pre-Halloween treat on the evening of Tuesday 28 October 2025, RSC Belgium welcomed science writer Victoria Atkinson to Belgium to give a talk entitled ‘Witchcraft’s chemical secrets: the science behind the spells’.

The infamous witch hunts of the 16th and 17th century claimed thousands of lives (the vast majority of these victims being women), but behind the accusations lay a complex relationship between chemistry, traditional medicine and magic. In her talk Victoria explored how plant alkaloids and folk knowledge created potent and effective remedies that were both feared and sought after.

Dr Victoria Atkinson is a third-generation chemist who studied at the University of Oxford including a fourth-year master’s project working on catalytic methodology with Darren Dixon which led to her first publication. She continued on to do a PhD, with Jeremy Robertson on a total synthesis project, employing enzymatic methodology to produce agrochemical products.

However, towards the end of her PhD, Victoria found that she was enjoying talking about science much more than actually doing it and became heavily involved in science outreach – sharing her enthusiasm for science with younger students through practical workshops and school visits. Later, she focused on developing new outreach material and then made the transition to freelance science journalism via a Marriott Internship with the RSC’s Chemistry World magazine. 

Today Victoria works with a range of publications specialising in chemistry, sustainability and research culture.

You can access Victoria's article on Chemistry and Witchcraft published in Chemistry World here.

Victoria's talk was videoed and you can enjoy it again either via the embedded video below or on our dedicated RSC Belgium YouTube Channel.

Witchcraft’s chemical secrets: the science behind the spells

New windows on our Universe

On the evening of Tuesday 30 September 2025, RSC Belgium welcomed Professor Gwenhaël de Wasseige from the Universite Catholique de Louvain to talk to us about her exciting work on neutrinos and other astronomical phenomena. Her talk was a real eye-opener to the world of new ways of observing our universe through 'multi-messenger' astronomy - in particular extremely sensitive, cutting-edge research to detect neutrinos.

Most of what we know about our Universe today comes from the observation of visible light. To improve our understanding of the numerous exotic phenomena that populate the sky, we need to enlarge the spectrum of our observations. Furthermore, adding new cosmic messengers provides extra pieces to help solve the puzzles of the universe. In the talk, Professor Gwenhaël de Wasseige reviewed the status of multi-messenger astronomy and discussed the pros and cons of each messenger to study some of the most violent events in the universe.

Professor de Wasseige is an astroparticle physicist and a member of both the IceCube and KM3NeT collaborations and her main work is focused on low-energy (MeV-GeV) neutrinos coming from transient events, such as solar flares, core-collapse supernovae, and compact binary star mergers.

The IceCube Neutrino Observatory was the first detector of its kind, designed to observe the cosmos from deep within the Antarctic ice. Encompassing a cubic kilometre of ice, IceCube searches for nearly massless subatomic particles called neutrinos. These high-energy astronomical messengers provide information to probe the most violent astrophysical sources: events like exploding stars, gamma-ray bursts, and cataclysmic phenomena involving black holes and neutron stars.

The KM3NeT collaboration is developing the next generation neutrino telescopes with telescope detector volumes between a megaton and several cubic kilometres of clear sea water. Located in the deepest parts of the Mediterranean, KM3NeT is opening a new window on our Universe including research on the properties of the elusive neutrino particles.

You can find a pdf version of Prof de Wasseige's presentation here and the work of the KN3Net project was recently featured (October 2025) in the EU's Research Magazine Horizon.

The talk took place in the Social Area above the Brel Theatre at the British School of Brussels (BSB), Tervuren and was followed by our usual social networking. 

RIP Rita

Rita Woodward (née Blakeborough)

19 June 1942 – 3 August 2025

Over the summer the section lost one of its founding members and the leading light of our work with schools in Belgium. Rita Woodward served on the RSC Belgium section committee continuously from its founding in the early 1990s until her passing. During that time, she held the office of Treasurer twice (1998-2000 and 2011– 2016) and was Chair of the section from 2001-2002. Rita had been a member of the RSC since 1964.

Rita led our work with schools for more than three decades. She devised the experiments and developed the questions for our annual Top of the Bench competitions for school teams – Belgium being the only section not based in the British Isles to send a school team to the UK finals – and also, in more recent times, developed our Chemistry Challenge initiative for individual students.

In 2010 Rita received an RSC Award for Service to recognise her outstanding support for the work of the society. Rita was presented with this prestigious award by RSC President Professor David Phillips (see above) at a glittering dinner event during the 2010 RSC's General Assembly. Previously she had been awarded an RSC Long Service award at our 2007 section AGM.

Rita was born on 19 June 1942 in Rawtenstall, Lancashire, but her early life was in Africa as her engineer father worked on developing the railways. The family spent time in West Africa before moving east, living in Uganda and eventually settling in Kenya.

She returned to the UK for secondary school, living with her grandmother in Newport, South Wales, and developed a strong interest in Chemistry. Her first job was as a research assistant at British Petroleum in Barry, South Wales where she met her life-long partner and husband Peter, whom she married in 1965.

Initially Rita did not consider university, but she followed her passion for chemistry, studying at night school for an ‘Associate of the Royal Institute of Chemistry’ (ARIC) qualification that she completed at Aston University. Rita then obtained a teaching diploma at Keele University.

In 1977, Rita, Peter and the family moved to Belgium enrolling their two sons at the British School ofBrussels (BSB). Rita also joined BSB, initially as a supply teacher, before joining the Chemistry department. She went on to become Head of Chemistry, and later Head of Science, dedicating more than 25 years to the school. Rita designed the very splendid laboratories at BSB.

Rita remained involved with the Royal Society of Chemistry, and in particular the Belgium section, throughout her adult life, and this continued into her retirement. The RSC played a central role in her and Peter’s social life, and many lasting friendships came from it.

Rita will be missed dearly and remembered always with love. For colleagues, students, and friends, she was someone who you could rely on and respect. She embraced every stage of her life with thoughtfulness, energy, and purpose. Whether through her work, her friendships, her family, or her hobbies, she gave her time and attention generously. She had a quiet determination, a steady presence, and a deep sense of responsibility to those around her.

Rita leaves husband Peter and their two sons: Jonathan and Michael.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Healthcare and beyond

An RSC Café Chimique on Artificial Intelligence (AI) took place on Tuesday 13 May 2025 in the Social Area above the Brel Theatre at the British School of Brussels. Our two speakers were pioneering entrepreneurs of the use of AI in healthcare: Dr Dani Manjah from Professor Benoit Macq's research group at the Ecole Polytechnique de Louvain, and Thibaut Helleputte, founder and CEO of DNAlytics, a start-up specialising in data sciences applied to healthcare located in Louvain-la-Neuve.

The debate was chaired by Professor Bob Crichton, our recent past Chair of the section and the discussion was kicked off, as usual for our Cafe Chimique events, by short presentations from the two speakers.

Our first presentation was from Dani who gave a quick overview of what AI was - and was not - and then described some applications in healthcare. Dani's presentation is embedded below.

Thibaut then gave some further insights to his work on AI and healthcare. His presentation is embedded below as a pdf.

Following the two presentations an extensive and wide-ranging discussion was initiated led by questions from the audience. Issues covered included societal and socio-economic issues as well as sector-specific concepts.

As with our previous debates the audience was seated in a café-style format and gratis drinks and light refreshments were available before and during the event.

Strange Ice

On the evening of Thursday 27 March 2025, the section welcomed Professor Andrea Sella of University College London back to Belgium to give us his 'Strange Ice' talk. The talk was a highly personal journey into the world of the strange solid that all of us know and love and yet which conceals deep mysteries and dark prophecies about our shared future. 

Andrea's presentation took us from a glass of water to the skies above our heads, from the Alps to the winters of Poland and up to the Arctic, stopping to look at a variety of other ices, both crystalline and amorphous, and asking questions about chemistry, physics, psychology, climate change, disinformation and politics. Ice speaks. Can we learn to listen?

The talk was highly informative, entertaining and thought provoking and initiated a wide-ranging discussion that continued into the post-talk networking. 

A video of the proceedings was recorded and is now available on the RSC Belgium YouTube channel and is also embedded below.

About Andrea

Andrea Sella is a chemist and broadcaster based at University College London where he is a Professor of Inorganic Chemistry. His main research is on rare-earth metals and he collaborates with several research groups on hydrogen storage, carbonitrides, and nanotube insertion chemistry. He has been involved in numerous television documentaries, including the 2010 BBC documentary “Chemistry: A Volatile History”, which was nominated for the 2010 British Academy Television Awards. In 2014 he presented "My Family and other Ibex" and "Urine Trouble: What's in our Water" on BBC Radio 4. He has been a guest on Melvyn Bragg's “In Our Time” and appeared regularly on radio programmes like Start the Week, Weekend, Newshour, the Today Programme and the Infinite Monkey Cage. He has been consultant and contributor for the BBC World Service's series "Elemental Economics" presented by Justin Rowlatt.

Andrea had previously presented our 2010 demonstration lectures, as part of the annual ‘Printemps des Sciences’ festival in March at Louvain-la-Neuve. On that occasion (pre blog) he gave us a fascinating exposition on oscillating reactions somewhat confusingly called ‘How the Zebra got its Stripes’ - and had delivered one of the lectures in French.

ICP-mass spectrometry in the biomedical sciences: pushing the boundaries of the application range

On the evening of Tuesday 29 April the section welcomed Professor Frank Vanhaecke from Ghent University to talk about ‘ICP-mass spectrometry in the biomedical sciences: pushing the boundaries of the application range’. Frank received the Royal Society of Chemistry’s prestigious ‘Theophilus Redwood award’ in 2023 for outstanding contributions to the chemical sciences in the area of analytical chemistry. 

Frank's talk discussed recently developed analytical methodology including the use of laser ablation – ICP-MS to reveal the distribution of (trace) elements across biological tissues, the determination of metal contents in individual cells and the use of metal isotope ratios for diagnostic and prognostic purposes.

Inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (ICP-MS) is the most powerful tool for trace element analysis, as a result of which it is widely used in many application areas, including clinical analysis. While in clinical analysis, determination of essential and non-essential (toxic) elements in body fluids and tissues is considered a routine application, other approaches have not reached that status yet, despite their added value.

Frank showed how through the use of laser ablation (LA) as a means of sample introduction, a thin section of tissue can be interrogated point-by-point to reveal the distribution of targeted elements in a quantitative manner. Moreover, when combining LA with an ICP-MS unit equipped with a time-of-flight (ToF) mass analyser, a nearly complete elemental mass spectrum is available for every pixel on the tissue “map”.

The detection power of ICP-MS instrumentation has meanwhile been enhanced to such an extent that it also allows quantification of the content of exo- and endogenous elements in individual cells, using either traditional pneumatic nebulization or laser ablation as a means of sample introduction.

In addition, Frank showed how high-precision isotopic analysis of essential mineral elements can provide insights into biochemical processes and diagnostic/prognostic information, as isotope ratios can pick up on metabolic changes with higher sensitivity than element concentrations can and/or provide information that is not embedded in the element concentrations.

The added value of these more novel approaches was illustrated by discussing the results of a number of interdisciplinary research projects carried out at Frank’s labs in Ghent.

A video of Frank's presentation is embedded below or can be viewed on the RSC Belgium dedicated YouTube channel.

About Frank

Frank Vanhaecke is Senior Full Professor in Analytical Chemistry at Ghent University, where he also leads the Atomic & Mass Spectrometry  (A&MS) research group that specialises in the determination, speciation and isotopic analysis of (ultra)trace elements via ICP-MS. His group studies fundamental aspects of the technique and develops methods for solving challenging scientific problems in interdisciplinary contexts. Frank is (co)author of more than 500 papers and the work of his has team received a number of prestigious awards, including the RSC’s ‘Theophilus Redwood award’ in 2023.

2025 RSC Belgium AGM and Annual Dinner

The 2025 Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the RSC Belgium section took place on the evening of Friday 17 January 2025 at Les Amis Dînent in Wezembeek-Oppem. The AGM was followed by the section's Annual Dinner.

The meeting commenced at 19h41. Six section members were present: Rita Woodward, Julie Tuppeny, Tim Reynolds, Susan Schamp, Fabio Lucaccioni, and Robert Crichton. RSC member David Terrell was delayed by traffic and joined later.

Seven section members who were unable to attend the AGM sent their apologies and had asked the Chair to act as their proxy for the meeting if a vote was required. These members were: Bruno Linclau, Steven De Feyter, Richard Green, Ari Koskinen, Wim De Borggraeve, Melissa Dunkle and Lance Smallshaw. In addition to these apologies from members, co-opted committee members, Jonathan Norris and Bo Dahlqvist, also sent their apologies.

As first business, the meeting moved (Rita Woodward), seconded (Fabio Lucaccioni), and unanimously adopted the minutes of the 2024 AGM with no corrections.

Committee Report on the Section’s 2024 Activities (Tim Reynolds – Secretary)

The Secretary, Tim Reynolds, presented his 2024 report.

“During 2024 RSC Belgium organised five public evening lectures (most of which were recorded and posted on our @RoySocChemBelgium YouTube channel) and a special celebration event to commemorate 10 years of our Norman Lloyd Scholarships at Cardiff University. In addition, we held our 2024 AGM, had a late summer social walk and talk around the Waterloo battlefield and organised our two annual school outreach events: the Chemistry Challenge and the Top of the Bench ‘European Eliminator’. Our tenth Norman Lloyd scholarship recipient enjoyed their first year at Cardiff University.

Our 2024 AGM and Annual Dinner was held on the evening of Friday 19 January at Les Amis Dinent restaurant in Wezembeek-Oppem. At the AGM Dr David Terrell was re-elected to the committee and we welcomed Prof Ari Koskinen as a new elected committee member. The other members of the 2024 committee were Bob Crichton (Chair), Tim Reynolds (Secretary), Fabio Lucaccioni (Treasurer), Rita Woodward, Julie Tuppeny and Susan Schamp. Dharmjeet Madhav was thanked for his contribution to the committee over the past two years.

During the year, your section committee met three times on 6 February, 6 March and 19 November.

Our 2024 programme kicked off on 7 March with a fascinating talk from Professor Marc Van Ranst on the COVID-19 and potential future pandemics. On 25 April Richard Adams gave us his views on Artificial Intelligence and on 23 May we welcomed RSC President Professor Gillian Reid to Brussels to talk to us about her view of the Future of the Chemical Sciences.

Our activities resumed on 10 September with a special ‘Celebration of Chemistry’ event to mark 10 years of our Norman Lloyd Scholarships at Cardiff University with presentations from Dr Tom Tatchell from Cardiff, RSC Belgium committee members and Norman’s family. During the year our tenth scholar had been named as Zarah Ahmed. The Scholarship initiative has been a great success but with the funds now almost spent it was decided, in consultation with Norman’s family and Cardiff University, to close the scheme and one final partial scholarship will be awarded for the 2024-25 academic year. We hope to hear the name of this eleventh and final scholarship soon.

On Sunday 22 September we enjoyed an entertaining and informative walk on the battlefield of Waterloo with military historian and author Jean-Philippe Tondeur. Our lecture programme continued with a talk from Professor Ricardo Louro on antimicrobial resistance on 15 October and on 20 November we welcomed well-known material scientist and broadcaster Professor Mark Miodownik from University College London to present his new book ‘It’s a Gas’. At this last event we were joined by Waterstones bookstore.

On Saturday 16 November we held our 2024 Top of the Bench competition at the British School of Brussels. This year seven teams from four schools (BSB, ISF, MIS and St Georges) participated and after a tight contest Team Solvay from St Georges were declared winners and will represent Belgium at the UK National finals on 22 March 2025 in Cardiff. Team Baekeland from BSB who won our 2023 TOTB eliminator represented Belgium section at the UK 2024 TOTB Grand Final that took place at Edinburgh Napier University on 16 March.

The results of our 2024 RSC Belgium Chemistry Challenge for individual school students were announced at our Celebration of Chemistry event on 10 September. This year ten schools took part with just over 100 students participating in total - a very encouraging number.

Our thanks as ever to Susan and Rita for developing the content for our educational activities and all the teachers and students who participated during the year.

Our YouTube channel continued to grow during the year with some 473 subscribers. Some of our ‘content’ is proving to be extremely popular. Our Top Three videos (as of Monday) are, as last year, at #3 Philip Ball with 1,566 views, in second spot Plasma-based CO2 conversion with 8,087 views, while Nick Lane remains top of the pops with a remarkable 24,915 views.

We aim to run a full programme of events during 2025 and look forward to seeing many members and friends during the year. Details of forthcoming events can always be found on the RSC Belgium blog.”

There were no questions on the report, and the meeting moved (Julie Tuppeny), seconded (Susan Schamp) and unanimously approved its adoption.

Financial Report for 2024

The treasurer, Fabio Lucaccioni, presented the 2024 financial report and accounts.

 “The 2024 financial statements have been prepared with revenues and expenditures classified according to categories predefined by the RSC Headquarters.

• Current Account Balance (Year-End 2024): € 3,407.43
• Net Expenses (Receipts minus Payments): -€ 2,391.62
• Savings Account Balance (Year-End 2024): € 4,519.97

During the summer, our banking partner (ING) erroneously issued a debit card linked to the RSC account to our Chair, Professor Crichton. This administrative error resulted in unintentional use of the card by Professor Crichton for personal transactions. Upon identifying the issue, the bank issued a formal apology.

Professor Crichton, unaware of the card’s linkage to the RSC account, immediately reimbursed all expenses following a request from the Treasurer. Reimbursement was completed in two instalments due to an oversight in the initial bank statement reconciliation. The residual amount was cleared in early 2025. For clarity, this reimbursement has been backdated to 2024 to ensure that no discrepancies carry over into 2025.

The section’s total income for the year was € 7,415.51 with key income sources being the Grant from RSC Headquarters (€ 4,000.00), revenue from the Annual Dinner, and the Bank Error (reimbursement from Professor Crichton).

Total Expenditure for the year was € 9,790.43 with key expenses being on Lectures (€ 2,871.93 - seven lectures held with a total audience of approximately 200 attendees), the Chemistry Challenge and Workshops (€ 1,718.62 - activities involved over 60 students.), and the Bank Error (€ 2,873.81 - fully reimbursed by Professor Crichton).

Since the total annual income of the section is below £10,000.00, the accounts are not subject to external audit.”

The meeting moved (Tim Reynolds), seconded (Julie Tuppeny) and unanimously approved adoption of the Treasurer’s report.

Chair’s Remarks

The Chair, Prof Bob Crichton, thanked all members of the committee for their continuing hard work and support and looked forward to continuing success in the forthcoming years.

Bob said that he had enjoyed his six years as Chair but stressed the need to recruit younger members to the committee and help with section activities.

Election of committee members and section officers

The following nominations had been received for election to the committee.

Section Chair: Tim Reynolds

Section Secretary: Bob Crichton

Section Treasurer: Fabio Lucaccioni

Committee Members: Julie Tuppeny, Rita Woodward, Susan Schamp

All positions are for a two-year term. As the number of nominations equalled the number of vacant positions, all candidates were duly elected.

Other committee members in mid-term are David Terrell and Ari Koskinen. At the first committee meeting of 2025 Bo Dahlqvist and Jonathan Norris will also be co-opted onto the committee.

Auditing arrangements

As noted above as the section turnover does not exceed £10 000 then RSC rules indicate that no formal audit is required before the accounts are submitted to HQ.

The meeting adjourned at 19h52.

From Gaming theory to Protein Structure Prediction - the 2024 Nobel Prize

On Tuesday 4 February 2025 our past Chair of the section, Professor Bob Crichton, FRSC, Emeritus Professor at the Universite Catholique de Louvain gave us an enlightening talk entitled 'How Gaming theory helped solve Protein Structure Prediction – an overview of the 2024 Nobel Prize for Chemistry.'

In 1961 Chris Anfinsen demonstrated that the linear sequence of amino acids in the polypeptide chain of a protein contained all the information required to dictate its folding into a unique 3-dimensional structure. Since then, biochemists have been on a long quest to be able to predict the structure of a protein directly from its amino acid sequence.

The 2024 Nobel Chemistry prize recognised the pioneering work of Demis Hassabis and John Jumper who successfully used computing and artificial intelligence (AI) to predict the structure of almost all known proteins. Bob's talk traced how this evolved, from the first determination of the 3D structure of myoglobin and haemoglobin by Kendrew and Perutz in 1962.

Demis Hassabis, at 13 already a chess grand master and in his teens a programmer and a games developer, used his experience with AI and neuroscience to develop AI models for popular board games (his company Deep Mind was sold to Google in 2014). He then directed his attention from 2017 into solving the protein folding problem with the AI programme Alpha Fold, and together with John Jumper they fundamentally transformed this into Alpha Fold2. By 2020 AlphaFold2 performed almost as well as X-ray crystallogra­phy in predicting protein structure.

At the end of the 1990s, David Baker (who received half of the 2024 Chemistry Nobel Prize), began to develop computer software, called Rosetta, that could predict protein structures. At the same time, the field of protein design – to create bespoke proteins with new functions - also took off, and Baker decided to use Rosetta to design a new protein, Top7, which, in 2023, was shown to have the structure that was predicted. Since 2020 he has used Alpha Fold2 to design a series of incredible new proteins.

Bob's talk was recorded and is now available on our dedicated YouTube channel and as an embedded video below.

It’s a Gas!

On the evening of Wednesday 20 November 2024, RSC Belgium welcomed well-known material scientist and broadcaster Professor Mark Miodownik from University College London to Belgium to talk to us about his new book ‘It’s a Gas’.

Subtitled ‘The Magnificent and Elusive Elements that Expand Our World’ Mark’s new book masterfully reveals an invisible world through his unique brand of scientific storytelling. Why are most gases invisible, odourless and tasteless? Why do some poison us and others make us laugh? And why do some explode while others are content just to make drinks fizzy? 

During the evening Mark took us back to those exhilarating – and often dangerous – moments when scientists were trying to work out exactly what they had discovered in the world of gases. His talk showed that gases are the formative substances of our modern world, each with its own weird and wonderful personality. Examples included how seventeenth-century laughing gas parties led to the first use of anaesthetics in surgery, and how gases made us masters of the sea (by huge steamships) and skies (via extremely flammable balloons). The talk revealed the immense importance of gases to modern civilisation.

A Financial Times Master of Science and chosen by The Times as one of the 100 most influential scientists in the UK, Mark is Professor of Materials and Society at University College London, where he is also Director of the Institute of Making. He is the author of the book Stuff Matters – a New York Times bestseller which won the Royal Society Winton Prize – and Liquid, which was shortlisted for the same prize. He presents BBC TV and radio programmes on science and engineering such as Everyday Miracles and How It Works.

The talk was in the Brel Theatre at the British School of Brussels (BSB) in Tervuren, and was followed by a networking drinks reception with Waterstones Brussels bookshop in attendance allowing members and friends to purchase signed copies of some of Mark's books and have an informal chat with him.

Mark's talk was recorded and is now available on our dedicated YouTube channel and as an embedded video below.

Top of the Bench 2024 European Eliminator

On Saturday 16 November, the Royal Society of Chemistry Belgium Section held its annual Top of The Bench (TOTB) Competition to select a team of school students to represent the section in the UK National Finals in 2025. After a tough afternoon of competition the overall winner was Team Solvay from St. Georges International School in Luxembourg.

Our TOTB competition took place in the chemistry labs at The British School of Brussels (BSB) in Tervuren with seven teams from four schools taking part. Teams Franklin and Goodenough represented the International School of Flanders (ISF), Teams Kwolek and Baekeland came from Montgomery International School (MIS), Teams Solvay and Hodgkin travelled up from St Georges, and BSB was represented by Team Curie.

Each team was composed of four students with two students from Year 9 UK (3rd year or Grade 8), one student from Year 10 UK (4th year or Grade 9), and one student from Year 11 UK (5th year or Grade 10). The competition itself was split into three parts: a 30 minute group challenge Chemistry Quiz involving creative thinking exercises; a 90 minute group practical activity; and finally age-appropriate individual multiple-choice quizzes with the students having 30-minutes to complete them.

All the teams enjoyed the competition and when the scores from the various elements were added up Team Solvay from St George’s (pictured above with RSC Belgium TOTB organiser Susan Schamp) were first with Team Curie (pictured below with Susan) from BSB second and Team Goodenough from ISF third. This year individual cups were awarded to all team members of the first and second placed teams.

Team Solvay will now be representing RSC Belgium in the UK National TOTB Final which will take place at Cardiff University on 22 March 2025.

The Cardiff competition will be the last TOTB UK Grand Final as the RSC is discontinuing the event. However, the Belgium section is looking to continue our own TOTB event, or a similar practical-orientated team competition, possibly with a modified team age profile that could help widen participation from schools in our area.

Our immense thanks to everyone who took part in the competition or were involved in the organisation of the competition. In particular to Susan who developed the competition elements with Rita Woodward and to Jonathan Norris for use of the labs at BSB.

Iron Age weapons join the fight against Antimicrobial resistance

On the evening of Tuesday 15 October, RSC Belgium welcomed Professor Ricardo Louro who is head of the Inorganic Biochemistry and the NMR laboratory at ITQB-NOVA – an interdisciplinary research and advanced training institute of NOVA University in Lisbon, Portugal - to talk to us about antimicrobial resistance (AMR), which is an emerging concern that is threatening to burst the antibiotic bubble that has kept us largely safe from bacterial infection for nearly eight decades since the discovery of penicillin by Alexander Fleming.

It is estimated that AMR directly caused over 1.2 million deaths globally in 2019 and was a contributing factor in just under 5 million more. Without immediate global action, AMR could lead directly to over 8.2 million deaths each year by 2050 overtaking cancer as the primary cause of death.

A new global initiative to tackle AMR was launched in September this year at the United Nations General Assembly. The UN commitment aims to strengthen efforts to combat AMR and sets important targets, such as cutting global AMR-related deaths by 10% by 2030 and developing national action plans. Additional goals include reducing the use of antibiotics in agriculture and ensuring that low- and middle-income countries receive adequate financial support to fight AMR.

Professor Louro presented the problem, described current antibiotic targets and argued that scientific discoveries are uncovering new targets that have the potential to preserve our protection from bacterial infections into the future. In particular he focused on the emergence of  “Iron age weapons” that can help us to fight AMR by interfering with the iron metabolism of the target bacteria.

The talk, which took place at the British School of Brussels in Tervuren, was followed by a lively Q&A session that extended into our usual networking social event afterwards.

YouTube Video

Ricardo's excellent talk on AMR was recorded and can be found on our dedicated Youtube channel or as an embedded video below. Enjoy!