The Department of Plant Systems Biology (PSB) is one of the nine departments in Flanders Institute for Biotechnology (VIB). VIB is a top class centre of excellence consisting of >800 people in 60 research groups in the frontlines of life science. Besides scientific excellence, VIB has a proactive technology transfer policy. Invention analysis, patent applications, licensing negotiations as well as building business plans for new companies are carried out by VIB’s biotech specialised technology transfer team. PSB is located in the heart of the “Flanders Biotech Valley” that harbours a diverse set of biotech companies like CropDesign, Innogenetics, Ablynx, DeVGen, Bayer Cropscience, etc. PSB hosts a world-class team of > 30 bioinformaticians active in gene and genome annotation and in the field of comparative and evolutionary genomics, as well as a computational biology group that explores different approaches to allow the modeling of time-series microarray datasets, and to integrate these data with other types of data (phenotype, protein features, GO).

The expertise of PSB has been largely in plants, but recently, the PSB research group has gained significant experience with applying successfully the genomic and transcriptomic technologies to aquatic species. PSB has running collaborations with the UGent Aquaculture R&D consortium and its significant expertise in aquaculture is a.o. is evidenced by two recent patent applications in the field of aquaculture.

PSB will contribute to WP2 (gene expression, cDNA-AFLP).

PSB has a highly developed expertise in diverse genomics-related technologies applied to gene mapping, the rapid analysis of gene expression (cDNA-AFLP technology, microarrays, bioinformatics, functional genomics, computational biology, etc.) and the isolation and characterisation of specific gene products.

Prof. Frank Van Breusegem

is a well known expert in the field of oxidative stress signal transduction in plants (in the context of stress tolerance) with important experience in gene expression analysis. As an inventor on nine patents in both the fields of plant stress tolerance and aquaculture, he has also significant experience with tech transfer issues.

• Breyne P, Dreesen R, Vandepoele K, De Veylder L, Van Breusegem F, Callewaert L, Rombauts S, Raes J, Cannoot B, Engler G, Inzé D, Zabeau M (2002). Transcriptome analysis during cell division in plants. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA. 99:14825-30.
• Gadjev, I., Vanderauwera, S., Gechev, TS., Laloi, C., Minkov, IN., Shulaev, V., Apel, K., Inzé, D., Mittler, R. and Van Breusegem, F. (2006) Transcriptomic footprints disclose specificity of reactive oxygen species signaling in Arabidopsis. Plant Physiol. 141, 436-445.
• Vandenbroucke K., Robbens S., Vandepoele K., Inzé D., Van de Peer Y., Van Breusegem F. (2008) Hydrogen Peroxide-Induced Gene Expression across Kingdoms: A Comparative Analysis. Mol Biol Evol. 2008 in press
• Vanderauwera, S., De Block, M., Van de Steene, N., van de Cotte, B., Metzlaff, M. and Van Breusegem, F. (2007) Silencing of poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase in plants alters abiotic stress signal transduction. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 104, 15150-15155.
• Vuylsteke M., Van Breusegem F., Staelens J. (2007). A sex specific marker for shrimps and prawns. WO2007EP54041