Francis Impens

Contact

Campus Ardoyen, Technologiepark-Zwijnaarde 75, 9052 Ghent

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Personalia

Biography

  • 2018 - present: Professor - Ghent University
  • 2016 - 2024: Head of the Proteomics Core - VIB-UGent Center of Medical Biotechnology
  • 2012 - 2015: Postdoc - Institut Pasteur (Paris)
  • 2010 - 2011: Postdoc - Ghent University
  • 2010: PhD - Ghent University
  • 2005: Master Biomedical Sciences - Ghent University

Fun fact

In his free time Francis plays the tenor horn in Brassband Gent.

Member of

Research tracks

Expertise

With increasing antibiotic resistance, bacterial infections remain an important threat to human health. To identify novel targets for therapeutic intervention our group investigates host-bacteria interactions by innovative mass spectrometry (MS)-based approaches. Using Listeria monocytogenes as an intracellular bacterial model pathogen, we focus on the analysis of ubiquitin-like protein modifications of the immune system and the MS-based identification of novel bacterial antigens to develop bacterial mRNA vaccines. Building on these main research topics, in 2023 the group was awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant to investigate rare diseases triggered by infection.

Publications

Key publications

All publications