Welcome to the website of the Laboratory of Molecular Cell Biology (K.U.Leuven).

The Laboratory of Molecular Cell Biology is part of the Department of Biology (section Molecular Microbiology and Biotechnology) and the Faculty of Science and is located in the Institute of Botany and Microbiology.

Our laboratory is also a department, the Department of Molecular Microbiology, in the VIB, Flanders Institute for Biotechnology. VIB is a non-profit scientific research institute.  Using advanced gene technology, VIB studies the functioning of the human body, plants and microorganisms.

The main topic of the fundamental research in our laboratory are the nutrient-sensing mechanisms involved in control of the cAMP - protein kinase A pathway in yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae).

Using the power of yeast genetics and molecular biology, we are unravelling the nature of the nutrient sensors for sugars (glucose, fructose, sucrose), amino acids, ammonium and phosphate, the signaling pathways leading from these sensors to activation of protein kinase A and the downstream events linking protein kinase A to its many cellular targets: e.g. storage carbohydrate metabolism (trehalose, glycogen), stress resistance (trehalose, Hsp expression), growth control (ribosomal gene expression), fermentation capacity.

Applied research and industrial valorisation is focussed on several biotechnological applications with yeast:

1. development of stress-resistant industrial yeast strains (baking, brewing, wine and bioethanol production),
2. identification of antifungal targets in the pathogenic yeast Candida albicans,
3. yeast trehalose metabolism as model and tool for investigation of plant trehalose metabolism and for improvement of stress resistance in crop plants,
4. use of yeast as a tool for studying mammalian proteins with medical interest (Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's disease, peripheral neuropathies, diabetes).

Avonce N., Wuyts J., Verschooten K., Vandesteene L. and Van Dijck P.

The Cytophaga hutchinsonii ChTPSP: first characterized bifunctional TPS-TPP protein as putative ancestor of all eukaryotic trehalose biosynthesis proteins.

Molecular Biology and Evolution [In Press]