Vlaams Instituut voor Biotechnologie

As an independent and entrepreneurial life sciences research institute in Flanders, Belgium, VIB is leading the way in pioneering basic research. VIB hosts over 1.900 scientists from Belgium and abroad who are dedicated to exploring the molecular foundations of life, shedding light on the mechanisms governing humans, animals, plants and microorganisms. VIB’s mission is to positively impact society through scientific advancements and practical applications. Since its establishment in 1996, VIB has operated in a joint venture setup with Flemish universities located in Ghent, Leuven, Hasselt, Antwerp, and Brussels. The VIB research laboratories are located on the campuses of the partner universities and organized in ten thematic research centers. The VIB groups involved in COMBINE are led by Prof. Lennart Martens and Prof. Francis Impens and are part of the VIB-UGent Center for Medical Biotechnology.

Role within COMBINE

The Computational Omics and Systems Biology (CompOmics) group led by Prof. Lennart Martens is known for its leading innovations in machine learning and AI approaches in proteomics. Moreover, the group is a global pioneer of large-scale public proteomics data reprocessing and has made important contributions to viral- and immuno-proteomics data analysis. In COMBINE, the CompOmics group will lead WP3 to reprocess various types of proteomics data generated in the project (WP2 and WP6) to discover novel protein modifications and interactions. Through powerful integrative AI-based tools, novel hypotheses will be generated for validation by expert partners (WP1, WP2, WP5, WP6). This global integration of in-depth proteomics results will be an internally connecting layer for the project, but will also deliver a unique and invaluable resource for the field at large.

The Host-Pathogen Proteomics group led by Prof. Francis Impens uses their dual expertise – proteomics and infection biology – to gain fundamental knowledge about host-microbe interactions and identify novel targets for antimicrobial therapy. A major research axis is built around immunopeptidomics for the MS-based identification of antigenic peptides. The latter pipeline recently led to the identification of novel bacterial antigens that provide high levels of protection when encoded in mRNA vaccine formulations. Together with the Martens group and as part of the EU-funded BAXERNA project (www.baxerna.eu), the team has further improved its immunopeptidomics pipeline for the identification of pathogen epitopes. This pipeline will be used in COMBINE to identify universal tissue independent MARV epitopes, especially from GP (WP6). The team will use human cells expressing MARV GP (PTM) mutants identified in the project (WP2) as well as the MARV-trVLP system (WP1) to carry out the immunopeptidomics analyses. Advanced immunopeptidomics data analysis (WP3) will result in an unprecedented view on the MARV (GP) epitope landscape to steer vaccine development efforts.