The Biomedical Research Institute (Biomedisch Onderzoeksinstituut; BIOMED) was founded on 1 January 1999 to combine the expertise of the former Dr. L. Willems-Instituut with the Medical faculty of the University of Hasselt

Hasselt University

Hasselt University is a university with campuses in Hasselt and Diepenbeek, Belgium. It was founded in 1971, as the Limburgs Universitair Centrum...

 (Belgium

Belgium

Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...

). The institute is located in Diepenbeek

Diepenbeek

Diepenbeek is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Limburg near Hasselt. On January 1, 2006 Diepenbeek had a total population of 17,706. The total area is 41.19 km² which gives a population density of 430 inhabitants per km²....

, Belgium.

The research topics of the institute are auto-immune

Autoimmunity

Autoimmunity is the failure of an organism to recognize its own constituent parts as self, which allows an immune response against its own cells and tissues. Any disease that results from such an aberrant immune response is termed an autoimmune disease...

 disorders, e.g. multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis is an inflammatory disease in which the fatty myelin sheaths around the axons of the brain and spinal cord are damaged, leading to demyelination and scarring as well as a broad spectrum of signs and symptoms...

 and rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis is a chronic, systemic inflammatory disorder that may affect many tissues and organs, but principally attacks synovial joints. The process produces an inflammatory response of the synovium secondary to hyperplasia of synovial cells, excess synovial fluid, and the development...

, and the more general pathophysiological mechanisms of cell-damage and cell-death, such as cytokines, toxins and ischemia

Ischemia

In medicine, ischemia is a restriction in blood supply, generally due to factors in the blood vessels, with resultant damage or dysfunction of tissue. It may also be spelled ischaemia or ischæmia...

.

See also

• Limburg Science Park
  Limburg Science Park
  The Limburg Science Park is a business incubator and science park located in Diepenbeek on the campus of Hasselt University. The organisation was founded in 1989 at the initiative of the University of Hasselt, the Board of the Provincial Government and the Regional Development Society Limburg...
  
  
• Flanders Interuniversity Institute of Biotechnology (VIB)
• VITO
  Flemish institute for technological research
  The Flemish institute for technological research or VITO, is a research centre, located in Mol, Antwerp, Flanders, Belgium. The institute performs contract research and develops products and processes in the fields of energy, environment and materials, for both the public and the private sector...