The Institute of Interdisciplinary Research (IRIBHM) is part of the ULB Medical School (ULB) and one of the largest research structures of the university. Founded in the nineteen sixties with the aim of applying an interdisciplinary approach to the study of thyroid pathophysiology, the Institute has thrived over the years into a number of independent groups with diversifying research interests. Presently, about 130 researchers and technicians are working in the Institute over a range of subjects encompassing signal transduction, development, neuroscience and cancer, using cell and molecular biology approaches. Staff researchers include physicians, physicists, (bio)chemists and biologists. The activities of IRIBHM are mainly taking place on the Erasme campus of ULB, in the suburb of Brussels, although the Institute also contributes to the Institut de Biologie Moléculaire et Médicale (IBMM) on the Gosselies campus. The heavy equipment is common to the whole Institute and often shared with other groups of the campus as technical platforms. This includes genomics, proteomics, transgenesis, FACS and confocal microscopy facilities.

The research themes of the IRIBHM are all centered around the study of the transduction of biological signals, from the decoding of the signals by receptors at the plasma membrane, to the control of regulatory cascades, gene expression and cell proliferation.