METABOLIC RESEARCH GROUP (BCHM-GRM)

Groupleader: Emile VAN SCHAFTINGEN
Email: vanschaftingenbchm.ucl.ac.be
website: www.icp.ucl.ac.be/grm/
contact: BCHM-GRM
               Avenue Hippocrate 75 UCL 75.39
               1200 BRUXELLES
               Tel: +32 2/764.75.39
               Fax: +32 2/764.75.78
GRM Unit Directory (People)
Research interest
    Carbohydrate Metabolism: For many years, the interest of this group has been focused on the regulation of carbohydrate metabolism, two important contributions being the discovery of fructose 2,6-bisphosphate (in 1980, in collaboration with L Hue, HORM unit, and HG Hers, former head of this group) and that of the regulatory protein of glucokinase (in 1989). An interest has been keeped in inborn errors of metabolism and the lab has contributed the identification of several “new” enzymatic deficiencies, including that of phosphomannomutase (in collaboration with Prof. J. Jaeken, Leuven). As a result of this, part of our work has been devoted to the biochemical characterization of some of the enzymes involved in these deficiencies. More recently, the study of the mechanism of formation of the intriguing phosphate ester, fructose 3-phosphate, has led us to identify fructosamine 3-kinase. This has brought the group into very different fields, those of protein repair and diabetic complications.
Leaders: Emile VAN SCHAFTINGEN(vanschaftingenbchm.ucl.ac.be),
               Maria VEIGA-DA-CUHMA(veigadacunhabchm.ucl.ac.be)
    Purine Nucleoside Analogues in Leukemia: The major interests of the group are the regulation of purine metabolism and the pharmacologic and therapeutic effects of selected purine nucleoside analogues used in the treatment of B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (B-CLL). The current investigations aim at understanding the mechanisms of progressive chemoresistance of lymphoid malignancies to 2-chloro-2'-deoxyadenosine (CdA), an adenosine deaminase resistant analogue of deoxyadenosine.
Leaders: Françoise BONTEMPS(bontempsbchm.ucl.ac.be),
              Eric VAN DEN NESTE(vandennestesang.ucl.ac.be)
    Oxidative Protein Folding: In our group, we study proteins involved in disulfide bond formation or reduction in Escherichia coli by different biochemical, structural and genetic techniques.
Leader: Jean-François COLLET(colletbchm.ucl.ac.be)

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