Jan Tavernier
Cytokine Receptor Laboratory
VIB Department of Medical Protein Research, UGent

PhD: Univ. of Ghent, Ghent, Belgium, '84 VIB Group leader since 1996

e-mail phone +32 9 264 93 02 ADDRESS

Current team members
Group leader: Jan Tavernier
Staff scientist: Frank Peelman
Postdoctoral scientists: Delphine Lavens, Irma Lemmens, Lennart Zabeau, Mieke Delvaeye, Samuel Lievens, Sven Eyckerman, Viola Gesellchen
Ph.D. Students: Celia Bovijn, Eleonora Billi, Isabel Uyttendaele, Joris Wauman, Laura Icardi, Leentje De Ceuninck, Sylvie Seeuws, Tim Van Acker
Support personnel: Anne-Sophie De Smet, Annick Verhee, Dieter Defever, Dominiek Catteeuw, Elien Ruyssinck, José Van Der Heyden, Nele Vanderroost

Keywords
signal transduction - protein interactions - leptin -cytokine receptors -innate immune resonse

Science

The a-helical bundle cytokine family comprises most interleukins, the interferons and colony stimulating factors, together with hormones such as growth hormone and leptin. They control many levels of intercellular communication involved in development, host defense and metabolism in higher eukaryotes. Several human diseases are associated with malfunctioning of this communication system. Their receptors are composed of an extracellular, ligand binding part that is linked to the cytosolic, signaling domain by a single transmembrane region. We are investigating several key aspects of these receptors. Detailed studies are ongoing to understand the molecular mechanisms that underlie receptor activation upon ligand binding. We here focus on the leptin receptor and from these insights several leptin antagonists were developed. A key signaling event downstream of these receptors is activation of the JAK/STAT pathway and our MAPPIT two-hybrid toolbox is based on this signaling route. Using MAPPIT and other technologies including molecular modeling we investigate several protein interactions that are important in the innate immune response

Read recent News & Views on the recent Nat. Methods paper.

Link to Group's website for more details.

Venkatesan K, Rual J, Vazquez A, Stelzl U, Lemmens I, Hirozane-Kishikawa T, Hao T, Zenkner M, Xin X, Goh K, Yildirim M, Simonis N, Heinzmann K, Gebreab F, Sahalie J, Cevik S, Simon c, De Smet A, Dann E, Smolyar A, Vinayagam A, Yu H, Szeto D, Borick H, Dricot A, Klitgord N, Murray R, Lin C, Lalowski M, Timm J, Rau K, Boone C, Braun P, Cusick M, Roth F, Hill D, Tavernier J, Wanker E, Barabasi A, Vidal M
An empirical framework for binary interactome mapping
NAT METHODS 6, 83-90, 2009



Piessevaux J, Lavens D, Peelman F, Tavernier J
The many faces of the SOCS box
CYTOKINE GROWTH F R 19, 371-81, 2008



Yu H, Braun P, Yildirim M, Lemmens I, Venkatesan K, Sahalie J, Hirozane-Kishikawa T, Gebreab F, Li N, Simonis N, Hao T, Rual J, Dricot A, Vazquez A, Murray R, Simon c, Tardivo L, Tam S, Svrzikapa N, Fan C, De Smet A, Motyl A, Hudson M, Park J, Xin X, Cusick M, Moore T, Boone C, Snyder M, Roth F, Barabasi A, Tavernier J, Hill D, Vidal M
High-quality binary protein interaction map of the yeast interactome network
SCIENCE 322, 104-10, 2008



Eyckerman S, Lemmens I, Catteeuw D, Verhee A, Vandekerckhove J, Lievens S, Tavernier J
Reverse MAPPIT: screening for protein-protein interaction modifiers in mammalian cells
NAT METHODS 2, 427-433, 2005



Eyckerman S, Verhee A, Van Der Heyden J, Lemmens I, Van Ostade X, Vandekerckhove J, Tavernier J
Design and application of a cytokine- receptor-based interaction trap
NAT CELL BIOL 3, 1114-1119, 2001

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