A joint Institute of CNRS and Paul Sabatier University (Université de Toulouse)

Institut de Pharmacologie et de Biologie Structurale

The main objective of the Institute is to characterize fundamental mechanisms that control the function of biological systems, by analyzing structure-function relationship of macromolecules, in order to develop pharmacological applications.

A primary objective is the identification and characterization of novel pharmacological targets in the fields of Cancer and Infectious Diseases (Tuberculosis).

The Institute is strongly committed to:

Teaching: many IPBS scientists participate in undergraduate, master and doctoral programs of the Université de Toulouse ( in the "Biologie-Santé-Biotechnologie" graduate school of Paul Sabatier University )
Technological transfers and industrial partnerships

Departments and scientific objectives

The Institute is organized in three departments :

Cancer Biology (10 teams)

A major goal of this department, which is composed of ten research groups, is to characterize and validate new pharmacological targets for cancer therapy. This objective is approached through analysis of molecular mechanisms of cancerogenesis (genomic instability, DNA replication, recombination and proteomics) and the influence of tumor microenvironment (angiogenesis, immune response and inflammation).

Structural Biology and Biophysics (8 teams)

This newly created department comprises seven research teams whose main objective is the study of the structure-activity relationships of biomolecules and their assemblies.
These teams use multiple and complementary experimental approaches from structural biology and biophysics, in synergy with a set of cutting edge facilities (proteomics, fluorescence imaging, 3D structure determination, screening, etc.) which have been labelled at the national level (IBiSA). The projects of the department relate to the comprehension of the fundamental mechanisms of life, developing applications in the field of pharmacology

Molecular Mechanisms of Mycobacterial Infections (5 teams)

The development of new therapeutic strategies and vaccines against mycobacteria remains a priority for public health. The research in this department focuses on the etiological agents of tuberculosis and leprosy. Five research groups with complementary expertise collaborate to study different molecular aspects of pathogenicity, ranging from the identification of virulence genes to host responses to infection.

Major findings

Between 2005-2009, IPBS Scientists authored 428 original articles.

These include several publications in high impact journals : Science 2005 (2) & 2007, Nature 2005 & 2007, PNAS 2005 (3), 2006 (3), 2007 (4), 2008 (1) & 2009 (2), EMBO J 2006 (2) & 2008, Blood 2007 & 2008 (3), Nature Medecine 2008, Nature Biotech 2005 & 2006, J Exp Med 2009 (2), PloS Med 2005 & 2006, PloS Biology 2006, PloS Pathogens 2008 & 2009, J. Cell Biol. 2008, Mol Cell 2007 (2), Circ Res 2007,…

During that period, several potential pharmacological targets were discovered and/or characterized by the teams of the the “Molecular Mechanisms of Mycobacterial Infections” Department (mycobacterial enzymes MabA, pkS13, PptT, FadD32, …) and the “Cancer Biology” Department (SphK1, ASB2, THAP1, IL-33, …) in collaboration with teams of the “Structural Biology and Biophysics” Department.

Major discoveries include:

role of human DNA polymerase lambda in replication of damaged DNA (Nature 2007, PNAS 2008)
role of transcriptional regulation in class switch recombination (PNAS 2007, J Exp Med 2009)
dynamics of the DNA repair factor TFIIH in living cells (PloS Biology 2006 PLoS Biology 2009)
transport of the DNA repair protein Ku at the cell surface and role in monocyte invasion (EMBO R 2007)
Discovery of interleukin-33, an endothelium derived chromatin associated-cytokine of the IL-1 family (PNAS 2007, EMBO R 2008, PNAS 2009)
Validation of Sphingosine Kinase SphK1 and S1P as therapeutic targets un cancer and cardiovascular diseases (Cancer Res 2005, Circ Res 2007, Cancer Res 2008)
Discovery and characterization of a novel E3 ubiquitin ligase, ASB2, and its targets, the filamins (Blood 2008, Cell death and Differentiation 2009, Mol Cell Proteomics 2009)
Structural (NMR), molecular and functional characterization of the THAP zinc finger protein THAP1, a novel regulator of endothelial cell proliferation (PNAS 2005, Blood 2007, J. Biol. Chem 2008)
NMR structure and dynamics of a 210 residues transmembrane protein (J. Mol. Biol. 2009)
Development of innovative proteomic strategies (including bio-informatics) for analysis of complex protein mixtures (Mol. Cell Proteomics 2007 (x2), Mol. Cell Proteomics 2008 (x2), Mol. Cell Proteomics 2009)
In vivo electrically mediated delivery of siRNAs (Gene Therapy 2005, Gene therapy 2007)
Biophysical analyses of protein interactions at the membrane level (J. Biol Chem. 2007 (x2))
Study of the mechanisms involved in the capture of plasma membrane fragments by trogocytosis (J. Immunol 2007, Blood 2008)
In vivo analyses of amyloid protein aggregation and propagation (Nature 2005, Mol. Cell 2007)
Discovery and characterisation of the enzymes involved in the synthesis of mycolic acids in Mycobacterium tuberculosis (PNAS 2007, J. Biol. Chem. 2008, J. Biol. Chem. 2009)
Validation of Mycobacterium tuberculosis phosphopantheinyl transferase PptT, as a good drug target (PNAS 2006)
Discovery of the role of mycobacterial lipids in the invasion of human macrophages by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (PloS Pathogens 2009)
Analysis of the role of DC-SIGN in tuberculosis (PloS Med. 2005, PloS Med. 2006, J Exp Med 2009)
Structural and functional analyses of the CD1b and CD1e molecules involved in mycobacterial antigens presentation to T lymphocytes (Science 2005, EMBO J. 2006)