About the IB

The Institute of Biomembranes is an interdisciplinary research institute at Utrecht University, accommodating 16 research groups from the faculties of Science (Departments Biology and Chemistry), Medicine, and Veterinary Medicine.

A brief introduction
As from the very beginning of the Institute, its scientific mission has been focussed on the following three themes. Structure, function and organization of lipids and proteins in biological membranes. Biogenesis of membranes and the transport and sorting of lipids and proteins. The role of biomembranes in signal transduction via membrane receptors, cell-cell-, and cell-matrix interactions.
The Institute of Biomembranes was officially inaugurated on October 4, 1991. One year thereafter, in 1992, the University Board formally recognized the institute as a Research Institute; the Faculty of Biology was appointed as the corresponding faculty.
The Institute of Biomembranes was formally recognized as a Graduate School by the Royal Netherlands Academy of Sciences (KNAW) in August 1994, a recognition that was renewed in June 1999. At this occasion, the original number of eleven research groups that participated in the Institute / Graduate School of Biomembranes was enlarged to a total of thirteen, as before from four Faculties: Biology (4), Chemistry (3), Medicine (4) and the Veterinary School (2).

Since June 2004, the IB graduate school has received reaccreditation for the forthcoming six years the ECOS/KNAW. With this accreditation five new research groups were added reaching a total of eighteen research groups from Utrecht University. These eighteen research groups form together sixteen IB-project groups. As of the first of November 2004 Prof. Dr. Gerrit van Meer (Membrane Enzymology, Chemistry, UU) has replaced Prof. Dr. Arie Verkleij (Cell Biology, Biology, UU) as Scientific Director of the IB. Prof. Dr. Arie Verkleij has been Scientific Director since the inauguration of the IB in 1991. As of January 1 2009, the Institute of Biomembranes offers the PhD program “Biomembranes” of the Graduate School of Life Sciences at Utrecht University.

Since December 1, 2004 the IB board is composed of:

• Prof. Dr. Judith Klumperman (Faculty of Medicine, chair)
• Prof. Dr. Antoinette Killian (Department of Chemistry, Faculty of Science)
• Prof. Dr. Flip de Groot (Faculty of Medicine)
• Prof. Dr. Bernd Helms (Faculty of Veterinary Medicine)
• Dr. Paul van Bergen en Henegouwen (Dept. of Biology, Faculty of Science)

Scientific Advisory Board of the IB:

• Prof. Dr. Dennis E. Vance, Department of Biochemistry, 328 Heritage Medical Res. Centre, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2S2, Canada, dennis.vance@ualberta.ca
• Prof. Dr. J. Seelig, Biozentrum Basel, Abt. Biophysikalische Chemie, Klingelbergstasse 70, 4056 BASEL, Switzerland, joachim.seelig@unibas.ch
• Prof. Dr. Kai Simons, MPI, Pfotenhauerstrasse 108, 01307 DRESDEN, Germany, simons@mpi-cbg.de
• Prof. Dr. Steven A. Krilis, Department of Immunology, Allergy and Infectious Diseases, 2 South Street, Sydney NSW 2217, Australia, s.krilis@unsw.edu.au
• Dr. Matthew Harris, FEI Company, EINDHOVEN, Netherlands