Umons

Research at the Department of General, Organic and Biomedical Chemistry, Laboratory of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) and Molecular Imaging, at the Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy of UMONS, Belgium, relates to the chemical and biomedical applications of NMR and Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI): search of peptide vectors by phage display, covalent coupling of peptides and of other biomolecules to various diagnostic (i.e. paramagnetic and superparamagnetic imaging probes) or treatment nanomaterials for their targeted delivery, as well as the physicochemical and biological characterization of these nanosystems on appropriate in vitro and in vivo models, including the MRI validation of their diagnostic potential. The UMONS group involves about 20 researchers in chemistry and biology.

Sophie Laurent

Sophie Laurent is responsible of the WP3 on the design of new contrast agents


Sophie Laurent studied at the University of Mons-Hainaut (UMH), Belgium, where she graduated with a Master degree in chemistry in 1989. She obtained her PhD in 1993 from the same University where she was successively appointed assistant, lecturer, associate professor and Professor.
She joined the Prof R.N. Muller’s team and was involved in the development (synthesis and physicochemical characterization) of contrast agents (paramagnetic lanthanide complexes and superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles) for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). She is co-author of 299 publications in international journals such as Chemical Reviews and more than 450 abstracts in international conferences (h factor: 58, citations: more than 18500). She collaborates actively with the center for Microscopy and Molecular Imaging (CMMI) in Gosselies, Belgium. Since October 2016, it is the head of General, Organic and Biomedical Chemistry Unit in the University of Mons and of the UMONS part of the CMMI.

Sarah Garifo

She is a Research assistant and a PhD student, working for the WP3


Sarah Garifo has a Master’s degree in Chemistry, from the University of Mons (UMONS, Belgium).