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VIB, a research institute with international ambitions
VIB is a research institute with 1200 employees. VIB’s main objective is gathering innovative basic knowledge on the normal and abnormal or pathological processes occurring in a cell, an organ and an organism (humans, plants, micro organisms), using gene technological research. That is why VIB conducts strategic basic research in the various life science domains.
Recent VIB research led to breakthroughs in molecular and cell biology, developmental biology, genetics, cancer biology and cell death, blood vessel formation, inflammatory diseases, immunology, microbiology, neurobiology and Alzheimer’s disease, signal transduction, gene expression and regulation, functional genomics and proteomics, plant growth and development, (plant) systems biology and integrative biology, structure biology, glycobiology, and protein structure-function relations.
The VIB researchers work in research departments of four Flemish universities: Ghent University, K.U.Leuven, the University of Antwerp and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. The groups were selected on the basis of their excellence. Through close cooperation with these universities and a solid funding program for strategic basic research, VIB joins the forces of 1200 scientists and technologists in one single institute.
VIB pursues an active technology transfer policy. VIB’s innovative research is a continuous source of new technologies and findings that can form the basis of new social and industrial applications, such as diagnostics or medicine. The ambition of VIB is to translate its scientific discoveries and insights to applications that lead to an increase in society’s quality of life. That is why VIB’s inventions are intellectually protected by patents. These are actively licensed out to national and international companies, who want to convert the inventions into useful products or applications. VIB also brings new findings to technology platforms that are the basis for setting up new bio high-tech companies.
There are many applications of gene technology. VIB develops scientifically founded information and documentation on gene technology and its social applications. VIB has various means of communication for specific target groups such as politicians, press, youngsters and a general public consisting of non-specialists.
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