ULB Research ⤶	Description of the Unit	Projects of the Unit	Composition
Collaborations of the Unit	Protected technologies	Publications	Skills

Immunology

Faced with a pathogen - whether a virus, a bacterium, a fungus or a physical agent - the body defends itself by mobilising the immune system. In certain cases however, this defence fails and the parasite is able to outwit the immune system response. In other cases, the defence system goes out of control (as in the case of allergies), or leads to undesirable effects (autoimmune diseases, rejection of grafts). An in-depth understanding of the way the immune system functions is thus essential in a large number of fields in the health and public health sectors. For several decades now, the use of vaccines has enabled a significant reduction in the impact of several infectious diseases, with certain diseases even being eradicated. Others remain however resistant, especially those affecting less-developed countries, and there is still a great amount of work needing to be done in this field. The mobilisation of immune responses is also a priority field of research in cancer treatment: gaining a better understanding of the interaction between the immune system and cancer cells is expected to allow the development of strategies helping the organism to better defend itself against the tumour. ULB teams are focusing on clinical research (vaccinology, viral, bacterial and parasitic infections, immuno-deficiencies in early childhood), on regulating immune responses (transplantations, cell therapies, cancer-related immunotherapy), and on innate immunity and inflammation. With the support of Wallonia and the European Union, the ULB has developed a scientific and industrial campus in Charleroi, focused on immunology and cooperating closely with the teaching hospital and other hospitals in its network. With its Centre for Microscopy and Molecular Imaging (CMMI), the campus has at its disposal a unique set of preclinical imaging equipment covering all technologies, from a molecular scale to that of a whole animal, as well as advanced animal housing for mice with ''humanised'' immune systems. This campus, the Biopark Charleroi Brussels South, is in itself an ecosystem where academic research (both fundamental and applied) teams up with major pharmaceutical companies and a large number of highly specialised and very innovative small companies and university spin-offs.

Oncology

Though cancer can be increasingly well detected and increasingly well treated, it remains one of the main causes of death and a major problem for society. To treat it effectively, an in-depth understanding of the disease is required - and there is still a lot of work to do here. We now know that there are multiple mechanisms at work in the development of cancer, often characterised by great variability. These complex and mutually interacting mechanisms have genetic, epigenetic, immunological, psychological and environmental origins. The development of increasingly effective therapies therefore requires a variety of complementary approaches. These are fuelled by state-of-the-art fundamental research into molecular mechanisms, including the use of stem cells, as well as by wide-scale clinical and genetic studies involving the extensive bioinformatic processing of personal data. All these different elements are bundled together within the ULB's ''canceropôle'', with the very high-level fundamental research conducted in the laboratories of the Faculties of Medicine and Science going hand-in-hand with international level clinical research conducted in the Erasmus teaching hospital and the Jules Bordet Institute, benefiting from a tradition of oncological excellence. All this work relies on the resources and expertise of the Interuniversity Institute of Bioinformatics in Brussels (ULB-VUB). The ULB's ''canceropôle'' offers patients not just top-quality hospital care but also, on account of its acknowledged research excellence, access to the most advanced medicines offering the best chances of recovery.