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GIGA Advanced medical solution from cutting-edge academic research

The GIGA is the biomedical science interdisciplinary research institute of the University of Liège.

Located within the university hospital on Sart-Tilman campus, the GIGA has over 600 scientists specialising in the development of health solutions for patients. Among the scientists at GIGA are doctors, pharmacists, veterinary surgeons, psychologists, molecular and cellular biologists, chemists, physicians, mathematicians and engineers.

The researchers at GIGA are grouped into units by topic: systems (neurosciences, cancer, infection-inflammation-immunity, cardiovascular diseases) and methods (medical genomics, in silico medicine). They have an assistance division to draw up and manage grant applications and provide administrative support.

Academic excellence

GIGA’s members strive to achieve academic excellence to encourage revolutionary medical innovations. The GIGA has the highest concentration of ERC beneficiaries in the Walloon Region. Every day, GIGA's members publish a scientific article, including in the world’s leading journals. GIGA's members have filed over 100 patent applications for medical solutions.

Cutting-edge technological platforms

GIGA's researchers also receive cross-disciplinary services: access to cutting-edge technological platforms (see article below).

Training GIGA's mission includes the development of talents for the global and local life sciences industry through its unique GIGA doctoral school and lifelong training programme (in partnership with FOREM).

Innovation GIGA supports start-ups and emerging businesses in its “labhotel” and through the spaces available for businesses.

GIGA is an employer that promotes equal opportunities, staff development and wellbeing based on responsibility, integrity and mutual respect. GIGA's membership is over 50% female and comes from 45 countries.

Translational research Translational research is becoming increasingly significant these days. It builds bridges between the “research” cluster and the “clinical” cluster for the benefit of patients. The GIGA concept

was formulated based on the principle that interactions between academic researchers and clinicians are essential in order to produce top quality research that delivers genuine health benefits. Profiting from its exceptional location within the university hospital, the GIGA provides this constant dialogue between researchers and doctors with a view to improving diagnosis, patient care and also quality of life and treatment. In this way, researchers are briefed on the current real-life clinical factors at play and doctors are encouraged to pass on their clinical observations to researchers.

Recent discoveries made by GIGA researchers illustrate this research jointly driven by academic researchers and University Hospital Centre doctors.

GIGA researchers have discovered a common denominator that triggers asthma in ideal environmental conditions such as pollution or excess levels of hygiene.

Over the past few decades, asthma has become a major public health issue. The exponential increase in cases of asthma in industrialised countries that has been observed over the past fifty years is due to major changes in our environment. Among these environmental factors are excessive hygiene, ambient air pollution and respiratory viral infections… Until now, the mechanism by which these specific environments are conducive to the development of asthma was unknown. In a study published in Nature Immunology, Prof. Thomas Marichal (a qualified FRS-FNRS researcher, Welbio and ERC investigator) and Prof. Fabrice Bureau (Welbio investigator) and their GIGA teams have put their finger on a completely unexpected variable that represents a common denominator in the various pro-allergic environments: specific neutrophils are recruited in the lungs and are responsible for allergic sensitisation and the development of asthma. This discovery allows a number of new treatment options to be considered in the prevention and treatment of allergic asthma.

© GIGA

Prof. Patrizio Lancellotti, Dr Cécile Oury and their team discovered a few months ago that a medication prescribed for heart disease, coronary syndrome and cardiac arrest is also a powerful antibiotic.

A GIGA team has discovered that a medication usually prescribed for heart disease is also a powerful antibiotic, including against resistant strains.

Prof. Patrizio Lancellotti, Dr Cécile Oury and their team (Lucia Musumeci, Nicolas Jacques, GIGA-Cardiovascular Sciences, Cardiology Department, Liège University Hospital Centre) discovered a few months ago that a medication prescribed for heart disease, coronary syndrome and cardiac arrest is also a powerful antibiotic. This represents a major new advance in the fight against infection via Gram-positive bacteria that are resistant to antibiotics. Researchers have shown that the antiplatelet medication ticagrelor (marketed under the name Brilique ® in Belgium) has a bactericidal effect on Gram-positive bacteria. In addition, this medication retains an identical effect against antibiotic-resistant strains. Ticagrelor kills Staphyloccocus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis bacteria that have a high resistance to methicillin and Enteroccus faecalis which has a high resistance to vancomycin. Its speed of action is higher than that of the antibiotics currently used in clinics and the frequency of resistance occurrence is extremely low. The team of Prof. Patrizio Lancellotti and Dr Cécile Oury are currently pursuing this vital line of research at the GIGA in collaboration with Prof. Bernard Pirotte and Prof. Éric Goffin (Interdisciplinary Medication Research Centre, CIRM) and Prof. Bernard Joris (Protein Engineering Centre, CIP), and other centres at the University of Liège. Their main goal is to unveil new treatment strategies based on the mode of action of ticagrelor in the fight against infection with Gram-positive bacteria and antibioresistance.

GIGA researchers have discovered a common denominator that triggers asthma in ideal environmental conditions such as pollution or excess levels of hygiene.

© GIGA

GIGA CHU - B34 - Quartier Hôpital Avenue de l’Hopital, 11 - B-4000 Liège Tel.: +32 (0)4 366 41 58 E-mail: info.giga@uliege.be - http://www.giga.uliege.be