Brussels Center for Redox Biology

The mission of the Messens lab is to decipher how cells communicate via H2 O2 and metabolite signals and how cells transduce these messages into downstream biological effects. We are studying the mechanisms behind reactive oxygen species scavenging, signaling, and regulation. Several oxidoreductase proteins, which successively pass on electrons via complex intra- and intermolecular cascades using thiol-disulfide chemistry, are involved. We specialize in the in vitro reconstitution of these thiol/disulfide electron transfer pathways, the study of the kinetics and protein structural changes during electron transfer, and the design of new tools to study the crosstalk between redox and metabolite signaling.

To investigate intracellular signaling by metabolites, it is important to have proper tools to visualize their trafficking in real time in living cells at subcellular resolution, which current mass spectrometry “omics” methods cannot offer. In response to this need, we design protein-based biosensors. The biosensors consist of a transcription factor that, by nature, has evolved to be specific for a metabolite and into which we genetically introduce a fluorescent protein as read-out. The Joris Messens lab uses these biosensors in combination with the latest tools for H2 O2 detection and manipulation to probe the crosstalk between H2 O2 and metabolic pathways. In this project, the biosensor design will be further optimised and used for the mapping of the metabolite dynamics in the process of tumor progression.

As a future MSCA fellow you will prepare the Marie Sklodowska Curie - Individual Fellowship proposal with the support of the team of Prof. Joris Messens. In case of successful application, you would be hosted within the Structural Biology Brussels research group of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the VIB-VUB Center for Structural Biology.  

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