Units

Pharmacognosy, Bioanalysis & Drug Discovery

The Unit Pharmacognosy, Bioanalysis & Drug Discovery (PBDD) is one of the research units of the Faculty of Pharmacy. Composed of three professors, two associate-professors, 4 assistants and 6 technicians; our unit is able to welcome several Belgian or foreign PhD Students. Specialized in the study of organic drugs, from plants or biotherapeutics, the PBDD Unit promotes researches in the domain of the development and the analysis of molecules with therapeutical potential. For bioguided fractionation of medicinal plant extracts, analysis and quality control of drugs, biotherapeutic characterization, biomarker research for validation of therapeutical targets, the PBDD Unit proposes performant analytical tools such as liquid/gas chromatography, spectroscopic methods (UV-Vis, NIR, Fluorimetry), electrochemistry detectors and mass spectrometry.
PBDD Unit is also responsible for the analytical platform of the Faculty of Pharmacy (apfp.ulb.be).

Projetcs

Contribution to the assessment of drug antioxidant capacity in the myeloperoxidase system

Myeloperoxidase (MPO) is an enzyme produced by neutrophils during inflammatory reactions. If its first role is struggling antigens by producing hypochlorous acid, this enzyme is involved in chronic inflammatory syndromes such as atherosclerosis. This leads us to develop specific MPO inhibitors. In addition, we are studying the impact of the enzyme in cardiovascular diseases (MPO-LDL interaction, oxidative damage...). Moreover, we characterize the inhibitor mechanisms by studying spectral properties of the enzyme and by identifying reaction products.