The research in the Department of Pharmacotherapy and Pharmaceutics focuses on the pharmacokinetics and the pharmacodynamics of a drug, the interactions between drugs and natural products, the evaluation of pharmaceutical practices in hospitals and community pharmacies and on patient adherence to treatment.

• David Vermijlen Group

• Arnaud Marchant Group
• Stanislas Goriely Group

The Institute for Medical Immunology (IMI) is part of the Faculty of Medicine and gathers six research groups led by : Arnaud Marchant (Director- Human immunology) and Fabienne Willems- located on the Erasme campus; Stanislas Goriely (Director- Basic Immunology), Véronique Flamand, Michel Braun and David Vermijlen (Associated investigator, Faculty of Pharmacy)- located on the Biopark campus in Gosselies. About 45 researchers are active in different key areas, including infectious diseases and vaccine responses, early life immunology, inflammatory disorders and tumor immunology. Research projects bridge fundamental, pre-clinical mouse studies and human immunology.

• Arnaud Marchant Group
• David Vermijlen Group
• Michel Braun Group
• Stanislas Goriely Group
• Véronique Flamand Group

Research at IRIBHM is centered mainly but not exclusively on the study of signal transduction in biology, from a variety of different viewpoints and approaches: molecular genetics, molecular oncology, molecular enzymology and pharmacology, cell biology, theoretical modeling, developmental biology, gene therapy. In the seventies and the eighties, the Institute has been a pioneer in the field on molecular endocrinology, initially applied to the thyroid gland model. In the nineties, it has been amongst the first to apply reverse pharmacology and what is now called functional genomics to the study of G protein-coupled receptors and genes of regulatory cascades. This led to breakthroughs in a number of fields: control of cell proliferation by cyclic nucleotides, oncogenesis, molecular pharmacology and enzymology, AIDS. 

• Valérie Wittamer Group

Since its foundation, the Jules Bordet Institute has always strived to understand the cellular mechanisms involved in cancer and to improve cancer treatments. By collaborating closely with healthcare professionals and doctors from all fields of medicine, researchers at the Institut Bordet are able to offer patients the latest innovations derived from scientific research.

• Clinical Cellular Therapy Research Laboratory (LTCC)
• Etienne Meylan group
• Experimental Haematology Laboratory (HEMEXP)
• Molecular Immunology Laboratory (MIU)

The Immunobiology Lab is part of the Faculty of Sciences and is located in the Institute for Molecular Biology and Medicine (IBMM) in the Biopark campus (Gosselies). It is headed by Stanislas Goriely and is composed of the teams of Oberdan Leo, Fabienne Andris, Guillaume Oldenhove and Muriel Moser (honorary professor). Main research themes include T cell biology, immunometabolism, inflammation and cancer using mouse models.

• Etienne Meylan group
• Fabienne Andris Group
• Guillaume Oldenhove Group
• Oberdan Leo Group
• Stanislas Goriely Group

Research in the Laboratory of Molecular Biology of the Gene focuses on the regulation of gene expression, a process which is fundamental for cell homeostasis and invariably leads to severe human pathogenesis when defective. Therefore, novel treatment strategies for a number of different diseases may depend on our ability to exploit mechanisms that normally alter the expression of endogenous genes. While historically, gene regulation studies have mostly focused on transcription, it has recently become evident that post-transcriptional levels of control play an equally important role. Our laboratory studies different aspects of postranscriptional gene regulation with a particular focus on the translation and stability control of mRNA containing so called AU-rich elements.

• Cyril Gueydan Group

The Parasitology Lab of the Faculty of Medicine of ULB assumes research, cooperation, teaching and service functions in its competence field of medical parasitology.

• Carine Truyens Group
• Eric Muraille Group

The morbidity and mortality associated with number of infectious and non-infectious inflammatory diseases differ between men and women. While males are more susceptible to infection-induced acute inflammatory diseases, females are more vulnerable to chronic inflammatory diseases such as autoimmune diseases, asthma and cystic fibrosis. Clinical investigations in pre-pubertal infants indicate that sexual hormones cannot fully explain such gender bias and that sex specific genetic architecture may play a prominent role.

The objective of our research is to depict biological markers and molecular signatures associated with acute or chronic inflammation in infectious and non-infectious diseases with taking into account gender as a biological variable to gain insight into physiopathological processes underlying distinct outcomes in males and females. 

Our current clinical and experimental studies aim at deciphering the implication of chromosome X-linked immune genes in gender bias of the modulation of the innate inflammatory response in acute (infection-induced pneumonia model) and chronic (cystic fibrosis model) inflammatory settings. We try to characterize cellular and molecular mechanisms at work with particular focus on the potent role of microRNAs, a group of small non-coding RNA that play a key role in the regulation of various biological processes including inflammation. To this end, we perform clinical investigations in close collaboration with the pulmonology service (Dr N Lefèvre, Dr L Hanssens, Dr G Casimir) of the Queen Fabiola University Children’s Hospital (HUDERF). In parallel, we develop experimental studies of infection and inflammation in mice to test our hypothesis in collaboration with Dr M Romano and Dr O Denis (Sciensano)

We also carry out a cooperation project financed by the ARES (Académie de Recherche et d’Enseignement Supérieur) between Belgium and Morocco involving ULB and universities of Casablanca (UH2 and UM6), and Pasteur institute of Casablanca. The aim of the project is to support local prospective microbiological and immunological investigations on major infectious diseases affecting mother-infant pair for implementing a global control strategy.    

• Georges Casimir Group
• Mostafa Chamekh Group

• Francis Corazza Group

Research in the Laboratory of Vaccinology and Mucosal Immunity focus on a better comprehension of different immunodeficiencies in humans. Three different immunodeficiency states are investigated, the immunodeficiency of childhood, the immunodeficiency of patients suffering from tuberculosis, and those associated with congenital immunodeficiencies. This work is at least partially based on the characterization of humoral and cellular immune responses to different infectious agents / or the correponding vaccine antigens. Therefore, we approach different questions of vaccinology with the hope to develop new strategies for better vaccine protection. In addition as the pathogens most often infect humans by the mucosal route, we characterize the immune reponses both within the blood and locally at the site of the infection. As we mostly aimed at the development of clinical immunology, our laboratory comprises medical doctors, scientists, and technicians.

• Françoise Mascart Group