About

The Institute of Epidemics (InDeEp) as a national and international reference laboratory.

T

he pooling of human and material resources within the Institute of Epidemics will create a hub of expertise capable of covering all critical functions required for the anticipation, surveillance, detection, monitoring and epidemiology of epidemic diseases. Preparing for future health crises presupposes that knowledge and know-how have been proactively and professionally disseminated “in times of peace” to national and international governance structures. With this in mind, the proponents of the project are already seeking the support of the University and regional authorities in their efforts to be formally recognised as a Reference Laboratory or Collaborating Centre of the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), as a National Reference Laboratory of the Federal Public Service Health (SPF Santé Publique), and as an accredited external laboratory of the Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain (AFSCA).

There is absolutely no intention for the Institute of Epidemics to position itself as a “competitor” of Sciensano, the federal public health body. Rather, the aim is to provide, within a close collaborative framework, complementary expertise. The strength of the Institute of Epidemics lies in bringing together university-based researchers whose vocation is to work upstream of public health agencies. This complementarity with Sciensano will derive from the Institute’s capacity to:

• implement active field epidemiological surveillance,
• identify and characterise novel pathogens and new strains of known pathogens,
• develop animal models in which these pathogens can be studied,
• develop novel diagnostic methods (for screening and for evaluating immune responses to pathogens) and make them accessible,
• train the next generation of professionals in the field of epidemics and pandemics.

The effectiveness of the Institute of Epidemics must, moreover, be grounded in robust core competences in fundamental science. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the vast majority of technological solutions were provided by researchers engaged in fundamental research. The two main reasons why these researchers are particularly well placed to address societal crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic are: (i) flexibility (they belong to small, agile structures that are relatively free from heavy regulatory constraints), and (ii) in-depth knowledge of existing technologies, both past and current (not only in their daily use but also in their underlying principles). The Institute of Epidemics will therefore also host fundamental research activities, organised around the following main themes:

• Cellular and molecular biology of microbes
• Pathogenesis of infectious agents
• Host responses to pathogens
• Cellular and molecular immunology
• Antigen and antibody production
• Production and quality control of biological reagents (e.g. enzymes)
• Immune evasion
• Diagnosis and treatment of infectious and immune-mediated diseases
• Evolution and epidemiology of pathogens
• Vaccine development
• Emerging pathogens
• Non-infectious epidemics such as allergies
• Resistance to antimicrobial agents (antimicrobial resistance, AMR)
• The microbiome
• Public health and the One Health approach
• Biosafety