Research

Availability of energy is a basic requirement of life. The energy flow through cells is central to all fundamental biological processes and many human pathologies, including chronic diseases linked to modern life style. Bioenergetics is an interdisciplinary field in life sciences that studies the way energy is transformed within an organism from nutritional uptake to generation of ATP and cellular work. LBFA has the ambition to develop both fundamental and applied, (pre)clinical projects in bioenergetics, including translational and systems approaches.

Our main interest is in regulatory circuits that maintain energetic and metabolic homeostasis, their regulation by life style factors such as nutrition or exercise, and their effects on cell death and survival. Instead of being limited to a specific pathology or discipline in life sciences, LBFA projects are mostly interdisciplinary, with a common focus on cell homeostasis and mitochondrial function. Our ultimate goal is to understand molecular mechanisms, develop diagnostic tools, and propose preventive and therapeutic approaches.

As a single team, multi-thematic unit, LBFA harbors three complementary research axis covering fundamental and applied aspects which range from more molecular aspects in cell signaling (axis 1) to more applied topics in cell death, nutrition and exercise (axis 2 and 3).

Axis1
Energy signaling & systems bioenergetics

How cellular energy homeostasis is maintained by kinases in cell signaling and nucleotide metabolism?


 

Axis 2
Mitochondria, cell death and survival

How failing homeostasis can lead to cell death via mitochondrial permeability transition?
Which strategies can be applied to favor cell survival?


 

Axis 3
Nutrition, muscle & healthy living and aging

How life style factors such as nutrition or exercise impact cellular and whole body homeostasis?

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Submitted on March 5, 2018

Updated on October 6, 2023