Laboratory Code of Conduct

Code of conduct

As a member of the Liston Lab, I understand

• There is no use of mice except under the mouse user principles
• There is no use of human samples or data without signing the patient data agreement
• Racism, sexism and homophobia are not acceptable
• Scientific fraud or plagerism are not acceptable

The laboratory is a shared facility with shared space and shared responsibility. As such

• I have read and agree to follow the laboratory protocols
• I will perform my lab duties as described in the “lab protocols” well and with regularity
• When I go on holidays I will prearrange for my lab duties to be fulfilled by someone else
• If I know in advance that performing my duties on schedule is not possible, I will consult with the lab manager on a case-by-case basis

Research laboratories can be a place of great stress, making inter-personal relationships intense. When dealing with other members of the laboratory:

• I will try to treat every person with professional respect
• I will try to be considerate of other’s feelings
• I will try to be respectful of other’s working conditions (eg, noise, tidiness)
• I understand that I work in a multicultural workplace, and that different people can have different cultural assumptions, reactions and methods of response than I do myself
  • I will try to assume the best rather than the worst from others’ actions
  • I will try to see the situation from the perspective of the other in a dispute
• I understand that tensions will rise and that we will not always be perfect
  • When I err, I will apologise
  • When I am apologised to, I will try to forgive
  • I will try not to hold a grudge
• I understand that public displays of affection or anger are not appropriate in the laboratory
• When disputes arise, I understand there is a responsibility to keep the impact on others minimal, as well as a responsibility to resolve the problem
• I understand that this code of conduct is an ambition for myself to achieve, rather than a standard against which I should judge others

Lab tech position

Job opportunity: we need a junior lab technician at the University of Leuven to be trained for PBMC isolation and flow cytometry analysis, to place a key role in clinical trials. We are after someone who is willing to listen and takes their work seriously. If you already know flow cytometry, great, if not, we will train you. Apply here, and take on a job that matters. 

Position available to work on diabetes

Great opportunity available for a scientist to work on an exciting diabetes project in the Leuven lab. Pure cell biology / endocrinology, so we welcome applications from beyond immunology! We have a research technician and post-doc position available, depending on the experience / background of the applicant. If you are interested, please apply!

Team photo

Liston lab at work

EXIMIOUS: how does the environment affect our health?

The European funded research project EXIMIOUS sets out to unravel the connections between our immune system and the environment we are exposed to. The Liston lab is proud to be a member of the EXIMIOUS endeavour. 

Each and every day we experience environmental exposures of all kinds, from the air we breathe, the food we eat, the objects we touch, the honking traffic on our way home. Depending on our lifestyle, diet, work and social environments, we all experience a different and complex set of exposures throughout our lifetime. The combination of these, starting as early on as during conception and prenatal phases, during our entire lifetime is defined as the exposome.

The World Health Organisation has drawn attention to the fact that environmental exposures can contribute to the induction, development and progression of immune-mediated, non-communicable diseases, such as autoimmune diseases, allergic diseases and asthma. These are chronic disorders, in which our immune system plays a key role, but for which the underlying causes and prevention strategies are still uncertain. Today, immune-mediated, non-communicable diseases affect about 9% of the European population, with women being two to ten times more likely to suffer from autoimmune diseases than men. If the environment we live in also contributes to these diseases, it is important to know in which way and find a means of prevention.

As of 1 January 2020 the European funded Horizon 2020 research project EXIMIOUS has set out to unravel the connection between the exposome and the immunome (the genes and proteins that make up the immune system), to better understand the role of the environment in immune-mediated diseases. Coordinated by Prof. Peter Hoet from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, the 15 EXIMIOUS partners from 7 European countries will collect blood and urine samples from population groups of healthy individuals of different ages, and of patients affected by autoimmune diseases, as well as from population groups with different occupations, such as park workers and miners. This will allow the researchers to build an overview of how different groups of people experience different types of environmental exposures, and how these have an impact on their health. Ultimately, the research efforts of EXIMIOUS aim to provide greater well-being, reduced healthcare costs and improved preventive policies for our society.

“In the EXIMIOUS project, we study how environmental exposures can affect our immune system, possibly leading to a specific immune signature or ‘fingerprints’. We will use these fingerprints as early predictors of immune-mediated diseases,” says Prof. Hoet, who is eager to start working on the EXIMIOUS project with an international and multidisciplinary consortium of experts in immunology, toxicology, clinical medicine, environmental hygiene, epidemiology, bioinformatics and sensor development.

With the ambition and enthusiasm to bring better prevention and help safeguard the health of citizens in Europe and worldwide, the EXIMIOUS team kicked-off the project on 10 February 2020 in Leuven, with representatives of its 15 partners from 7 European countries.

EXIMIOUS is part of the European Human Exposome Network, a joint venture that brings together nine research projects consisting of 126 partners in the largest exposome network worldwide. The EU has committed 106 million euro in funding towards the European Human Exposome Network. On 11 February 2020 in Brussels, EXIMIOUS and its collaborating projects ATHLETE, EPHOR, EQUAL-LIFE, EXPANSE, HEAP, HEDIMED, LONGITOOLS and REMEDIA gave voice to their commitment to work together towards a better and healthier future.

To keep up-to-date on EXIMIOUS’ progress follow @EXIMIOUS_H2020 on Twitter.

About EXIMIOUS The EXIMIOUS project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under Grant Agreement No 874707. It is a five-year Research and Innovation Action (RIA) that officially started in January 2020 and will end in December 2024. It involves fifteen project partners from seven European countries and has a budget of 10.8 million euro.

Immune cell treatment offers hope in tackling neurodegeneration

From the Cambridge Independent

 

Lab activities

  

  

Lab dinner

EU grant success to harness the immune system to treat brain damage

Covered by the BusinessWeekly

Research identifies potential treatment for brain injury and inflammation

Funding awarded to Prof Adrian Liston will be used to advance the approach developed in mice to make it ready for clinical trials. Pioneering research by Prof Liston, a senior group leader at the Babraham Institute, will be developed towards being market-ready for the treatment of brain injury by funding provided by an ERC Proof of Concept grant, as announced today.

Key points:

• Immunology group leader, Prof Adrian Liston, is one of 76 top researchers to receive an ERC Proof of Concept grant, used to translate EU-sponsored research into the clinic.
• Research by Prof Liston's team and collaborators developed a method to use the immune system to prevent brain damage caused by disease and injury.
• EU funding through the European Research Council (ERC) recognises frontier research and provides support to explore the innovation potential of discoveries.
• This funding will also lead the way towards commercialisation and therapeutic application of the technology.

Research undertaken by Prof Liston and his group has shown that driving the expansion of a specific population of immune cells in the brain is effective at treating brain injury in mouse pre-clinical models. The research shows that this approach is effective at treating brain damage caused by disease, such as occurs in mouse models of multiple sclerosis, or injury, such as occurs following a head trauma or stroke.

Professor Liston, senior group leader in the Institute’s Immunology programme, said: “This is an exciting new approach to preventing neurodegenerative diseases. We have been able to come up with a completely new approach to preventing, and potentially reversing, brain damage. At the moment the treatment is proven to work in mice, with the aim to have it ready for transition to human at the end of the year. The immune system is highly conserved between mouse and human, allowing a high degree of success in translation to the clinical. This is illustrated by the immune-based therapeutics developed in mice now successfully being used in the clinic to fight immunological diseases and cancer. This new method may open up a new immune-based strategy to fight neurodegenerative disease”.

The approach harnesses the power of a type of immune cell called regulatory T cells – cells that control the immune response, suppressing the immune system from over-reacting. Increasing the number of these cells in the brain prevents and reverses the inflammatory damage that occurs to the brain during diseases such as mouse models of multiple sclerosis, traumatic brain injury or stroke. The proof-of-concept research demonstrated that just one treatment was sufficient to prevent brain degeneration and stimulate brain repair.

Image: Pre-clinical testing of neuroimmune treatment in mice receiving a brain injury. The mouse on the left was untreated, and developed neurodegeneration. The mouse on the right was treated, with protection from neurodegeneration. Background image uses immunohistology to visualise signs of active brain repair in treated mice. Image credit: Lidia Yshii (VIB, Belgium), Pascal Bielefeld (University of Amsterdam, Netherlands), Sebastian Munck (VIB, Belgium) and Axelle Kerstens (VIB, Belgium).

“It took a multi-disciplinary and international team, spanning both immunology and neuroscience, to come up with a new approach", Prof Liston said. The grant is based on EU-funded research that was performed at the VIB in Belgium and the Babraham Institute in Cambridge. "We have had a talented team pull out all the stops on this, with particular thanks to Dr Lidia Yshii, Dr Emanuela Pasciuto and Dr James Dooley. Key to the success has been collaboration - working with top neuroscientists across Europe, with Prof Matthew Holt from Belgium and Prof Carlos Fitzsimons from the Netherlands providing key insights and skills".

The research grant from the European Union will support the development of this approach over an 18 month period. The funding will allow for the validation of the treatment in pre-clinical trials and the recruitment of a commercial partner for entry into clinical trials in patients.

Professor Michael Wakelam, Institute Director, said: “It’s fantastic that the ERC have recognised the potential of this promising research. Neurodegenerative diseases increase in likelihood and severity with age, so this research very closely aligns with our mission to improve lifelong health. We’re hugely excited to take the next steps towards developing this approach and exploring the wider instances where this type of treatment may offer benefits.”

ERC Proof of Concept grants award €150,000 to researchers to explore the innovation potential of their scientific discoveries and bring the results of their frontier research closer to market.