Units

Institute of Interdisciplinary Research in human and molecular Biology

IRIBHM is part of the Medical School of the Univerité Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and one of the largest research structures of the university.
Founded in the nineteen sixties with the aim of applying an interdisciplinary approach to the study of thyroid pathophysiology, the Institute has thrived over the years into a number of independent groups with diversifying research interests. Presently, about 130 researchers and technicians are working in the Institute over a range of subjects encompassing signal transduction, development, neuroscience, and cancer, using cell and molecular biology approaches. Staff researchers include physicians, physicists, bioinformaticians, (bio)chemists and biologists. The activities of IRIBHM are mainly taking place on the Erasme campus of ULB, in the suburb of Brussels, although the Institute also contributes to the Institut de Biologie Moléculaire et Médicale (IBMM) on the Gosselies campus. The heavy equipment is common to the whole Institute and often shared with other groups of the campus as technical platforms. This includes genomics, proteomics, transgenesis, FACS and confocal microscopy facilities.

Projetcs

2D/HPLC/mass spectrometry

Our major goals are the discovery of novel molecules involved in signal transduction, i.e. ligands for orphan GPCR and intracellular second messengers, as well as the study of their post-translational modifications (e.g. phosphorylation). Current applications concern essentially the purification of peptides and proteins by 2D electrophoresis and multidimensional HPLC, followed by their characterization by mass spectrometry. Peptide mapping and microsequencing are performed by using MALDI and nanoLC Q-TOF systems.

Metabolism of phosphoinositides

The work of the group consists in the definition at the molecular level of the mechanisms and enzymes involved in the signal termination reaction of new important intracellular molecules. The defined mechanisms, the cloning of new enzymes such as InsP3 3-kinases, 5-phosphatases, SHIP1 and SHIP2 have introduced new concepts and new targets in pharmacology. Loss of SHIP2 in mice leads to increased sensitivity to insulin.