Happy anniversary!

Abstract

On 1 and 2 October, the IBMM celebrates its 10 th anniversary. Located in the « Rue des Profes-seurs Jeener et Brachet » (it´s not by chance), our Institute follows on in the tradition of excellence in molecular biology and medicine initiated in the University by the very same Professors Jeener and Brachet. In 1929, Jean Brachet, then a brillant young student in medicine at the Université Libre de Bruxelles discovered , without knowing it, molecular biology for the first time ! Jean Brachet showed that thymonucleic acid was a component of chromosomes and that it was synthesized when cells divide after fertilisation. Thymonucleic acid is none other than DNA ! A few years later, Brachet observed that the cells actively involved in protein synthesis are rich in zymonucleic acid : this acid is RNA ! The fundamental basis of molecular biology had been established, that was in 1940. Jean Brachet was joined by Ray-mond Jeener : together they founded the Rouge-Cloître laboratory in Brussels. Other brilliant scientists joined them. Rouge-Cloître acquired an international reputation, growing to the point where the laboratories became too cramped. The researchers left the Brussels site to set up a laboratory in Rhode-Saint-Genèse. Here they gathered a second momentum from a few dozen, they grew to over 150. New research orientations appeared. The laboratories continued to prosper and the Rhode premises, which had originally seemed so huge, became in their turn too small. Several groups went to Brussels and Nivelles. In parallel, a laboratory was taking shape in the Faculty of Medicine in Brussels : first the Laboratory of nuclear medicine which, in 1972, became the Institute of interdisciplinary research in human and nuclear biology. Several years later it was transformed into the Interdisciplinary Research Institute for Human and Molecular Biology, IRIBHM, also of international renown. In 1999, the laboratories of Rhode, Nivelles and Brussels, which made up the Department of Molecular Biology of the Faculty of Science united and moved to the Aéropole of Charleroi. They were joined by several teams from the IRIBHM of the Ten years later, the results are indisputably positive. Firstly, from a scientific point of view : IBMM has accumulated publications, citations, prizes, regional research projects, not limited to Belgium but also in other European countries (see article on page 2). As far as regional development is concerned : the fruit of Objective 1 (Walloon Region, European Union), IBMM …