Research programs at UIPS

The research at the UIPS consists of five connected programs:

Immunopharmacology of the respiratory and gastrointestinal systems and Psychoactive drugs and the CNS

The objective of the first part of this program is to understand the contributions of immune and inflammatory cells and their mediators (from molecular and genetic level to in vivo) to the development of chronic inflammatory diseases, such as asthma, COPD, food allergy and Inflammatory Bowel Disease and the possibilities for pharmacological modulation of these disorders.
Integrated research into brain mechanisms of psychiatric disorders. This program aims to understand the underlying mechanisms and pathways, to detect and validate new therapeutic targets and to contribute to new drug development in the areas of anxiety/depression and impulse control disorders.

Medicinal Chemistry & Chemical Biology and Biomolecularl Analysis 
This research program is focused on design, chemo- or biosynthesis of compounds with biological or (potential) medicinal applications and interaction with their receptors to influence peptide-protein, carbohydrate-protein and protein-protein interactions that underlie e.g. infection, immunological, and neurological disorders.


Advanced drug delivery / drug targeting
The core activity of this program is the design and pre-clinical testing of tailor-made drug delivery systems for site-specific, time- and/or rate-controlled delivery of small molecular weight drugs, therapeutic proteins, nucleic acids (including DNA and siRNA), and antigens for therapy and prevention of life-threatening diseases such as cancer, inflammation and infectious diseases.

Biomolecular Mass Spectrometry and Proteomics 
Functional and structural characterization of disease related (bio)molecules. The main goal of this research program is to develop efficient quantitative technologies for proteins and peptides and for screening of complete proteomes or sub-proteomes of interest, in all their facets.

Pharmacoepidemiology and Clinical Pharmacology
 From molecule to patient outcomes. The program seeks to unravel and understand drug exposure-effect associations in the context of the 'natural' course of drug therapy in every day practice and to quantify and interpret both the beneficial and adverse effects of this exposure on a population level in epidemiological and mechanistic (molecular) terms.