DEFRANCE Matthieu

Units

IB² Interuniversity Institute of Bioinformatics in Brussels

Person in charge of the Unit : Oui

IB² is a collaborative bioinformatics research environment in Brussels. The goal of the IB² is to bring together research groups in and around Brussels requiring bioinformatics and computational biology expertise. IB² is an interuniversity, cross-faculty (Medicine, Sciences, and Applied Sciences) collaborative space located on the La Plaine campus of the Université Libre de Bruxelles.

Laboratory of Cancer Epigenetics

The Laboratory of Cancer Epigenetics headed by François FUKS is interested in investigating the epigenetic mechanisms involved in health and disease, with a focus on DNA and histone modifications (e.g.: Viré et al. Nature 2006 ; Brenner et al. Dev Cell 2007 ; Villa et al. Cancer Cell 2007 ; Fuks F. Nature. 2010 ; Ndlovu et al. Trends Biochem Sci. 2011 ; Deplus et al. Cell Rep. 2014 ; Delatte et al. EMBO J. 2014 ).It is now clear that the roles play by epigenetic alterations in a growing number of medical conditions unfold the attractive opportunity to develop epigenetic therapies that promises to reshape the diagnostic and therapeutic arena (personalised medicine). In the last few years, the field of epigenetic has expanded into an essential component of biological and medical research, with modifications of DNA and histones being considered hallmarks of most human diseases, including cancer. Further, the epigenetic field has recently evolved from a gene-by-gene approach to a more global approach, with far-reaching clinical implications in the field of diagnosis and treatment. Essential to these efforts are the development of technologies to explore genome-wide epigenetic modifications. In line with these recent developments, François Fuks' team has also a deep interest in the generation of novel epigenomic technologies in health and diseases (e.g.; Dedeurwaerder et al. EMBO Mol Med 2011; Volkmar et al. EMBO J 2012; Deplus et al. EMBO J 2013; Boumahdi et al. Nature 2014). Technologies such as ChIP-Seq, RNA-Seq, Infinium Methylation are routinely used by the lab, which is heading the Epigenomics Core facility, EPICS.

Projetcs

This person isn't currently part of a projet.