Martine Vanhoucke

The Belgian, non-profit BCCM/GeneCorner Plasmid collection strives to share its biological material, as well as its molecular biology expertise and know-how, with its partners and customers via:

• Deposit, preservation and storage of recombinant cloning and expression plasmids and related host strains in the public collection, the transit collection, the confidential deposit collections (safe deposit and patent deposit or as storage of third party’s biological materials). In the confidential collections, also cell lines, hybridoma’s, phages and other genetic material are accepted.

• Distribution of the biological resources mentioned above.

• Characterization and gene technology services: plasmid profile analysis, phage contamination testing, plasmid DNA extraction (small and large scale), plasmid sequencing (outsourced) and annotation, genomic modification of (host)strains, transformation of host strains, construction/modification of plasmids.

• Training and consultancy.

BCCM/GeneCorner is ISO 9001:2015 certified for the core business.
 

For over 30 years, I have been active as a WP member at the Faculty of Sciences at the Ghent University: I did four years of research at Prof. Paul De Vos' Laboratory of Microbiology, then I moved on to Prof. Fiers' Laboratory of Molecular Biology, and at present I manage the Belgian Plasmid Collection (BCCM/GeneCorner), embedded in the Department of Biomedical Molecular Biology (DBMB) and the VIB-UGent Center for Inflammation Research.
 

Selected publications for GeneCorner:

• Multi-step pathway engineering in probiotic Saccharomyces boulardii for abscisic acid production in the gut. Metabolic Engineering Communications, 2025. (PMID: 40530243).
• A concise guide to choosing suitable gene expression systems for recombinant protein production. STAR Protocols, 2023. (PMID: 37917580)
• Engineering a highly sensitive biosensor for abscisic acid in mammalian cells. FEBS Letters, 2022. (PMID: 35727199)
• Single-chain soluble receptor fusion proteins as versatile cytokine inhibitors. Frontiers Immunology, 2020. (PMID: 32754154)
• Engineering a minimal cloning vector from a pUC18 plasmid backbone with an extended multiple cloning site. Biotechniques, 2019. (PMID: 31124712)
• Generation of a new Gateway-compatible inducible lentiviral vector platform allowing easy derivation of co-transduced cells. Biotechniques, 2016. (PMID: 27177818)
   

• Lab address: Department of Biomedical Molecular Biology, Technologiepark 71, 9052 Zwijnaarde - Gent
• BCCM/GeneCorner
• VIB-UGent Center for Inflammation Research (IRC)
• LinkedIn BCCM Collections
• X: @BccmCollections
• Bluesky: @bccmcollections.bsky.social
• Martine Vanhoucke is interested to receive invitations for presentations or talks