Jean-Marc Ghigo

I am currently Professor at Institut Pasteur, head of the Genetics of Biofilms Unit in the Department of Microbiology. For the past 25 years, I investigated the molecular bases of various bacterial processes. I first studied type 1 protein secretion in Gram-negative bacteria with Cécile Wandersman (*) at the Institut Pasteur, Paris, France , where I obtained my PhD in 1994. After being appointed Research Assistant at the Institut Pasteur in 1995, I took a post-doctoral leave of absence to join the laboratory of Jon Beckwith at Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA, where I studied cell division in Escherichia coli. I returned to the Institut Pasteur in 1999 to develop an independent project investigating bacterial biofilm lifestyle at the genetic and molecular level. This led to the creation of the Genetics of Biofilms 5 year young investigator group (G5) in 2002, which was turned into a full Research Unit in 2007.

The research undertaken in my laboratory aims at revealing new or under-explored aspects of bacterial biofilm communities by addressing 2 main questions: how do bacteria form biofilms? what particular properties emerge from mono- or multi-species bacterial communities?  These studies were often developed via fruitful national and international collaborations, contributing to a better understanding of the biofilm lifestyle.

Contact & Access

*: Passion under influence: discovering bacterial genetics with Cécile Wandersman  Excerpt  from: 

Education and Training

1988               Agrégation de Sciences Naturelles (Teaching Degree in Biology)

1990               Master, Microbial Phytopathology University Paris XI-France

1994               PhD thesis, Microbiology (C. Wandersman lab), Paris XI-France

2001               HDR (habilitation to Direct Research). University Paris VI, France

Professional experience

1989                Military Service as a High School biology teacher. St Cyr l’Ecole, France

1990-1994      Master then PhD student C. Wandersman lab, Institut Pasteur

1995                Research Assistant (Assistant de Recherche), Institut Pasteur

1996-1999   Post-doc. (J. Beckwith lab) Harvard Medical School, Boston, USA

2000               Assistant Professor (Chargé de Recherche), Institut Pasteur

2002               Associate Professor, (Chef de Laboratoire), Institut Pasteur

2002-2007   G5-group leader Genetics of Biofilms laboratory Institut Pasteur

2007-             PI Genetics of Biofilms Unit, Institut Pasteur

2014                Professor, Institut Pasteur

Institutional responsibilities

2010-2017    Deputy Director of the Department of Microbiology –Institut Pasteur

2017- Member, Secretary, Chairman (2023) of the Institut Pasteur Scientific Council.

Supervision and Teaching activities

2004-        Supervision of 11 PhD and 21 Post Docs (see here, here and here)

2001-         Teaching in Master 1 and 2  undergraduate courses

Scientific activities

159 publications, 156 invited lectures, 3 patents; h-index: 58

Regular member of national and international evaluation committees

2022- Editor-in-Chief of the journal npj Biofilms & Microbiomes

Organization of scientific meetings

2011           Gordon Research Conference MATS: vice-Chair (with Craig Roy)

2013          Gordon Research Conference MATS:: Co-Chair (with Craig Roy)

2015          7^th  ASM Biofilm Conference: co-Chair (Chair: Fitnat Yildiz)

2018          8^th ASM Biofilm Conference: Chair (Co-Chair: Karen Visick)

Membership, awards and distinctions

Member, French Society of Microbiology Member, American Society for Microbiology

1993: Jacques Monod Award

2008: France Foundation Georges Zermati Award

2012: French national Library Foundation Pasteur-Valérie Radot Award

2016 Elected as Fellow, American Academy of Microbiology

2018 Elected as Fellow, European Academy of Microbiology

5 SELECTED RECENT PUBLICATIONS (Full list: (see on PubMed https://is.gd/tAmW1O))

Bernal-Bayard J, Thiebaud J, Brossaud MJ, Beaussart A, Caillet C, Waldvogel Y, Travier L, Létoffé S, Fontaine T, Rokbi B, Talaga P, Beloin C., Mistretta N, Duval JFL, Ghigo JM. (2023) Bacterial capsular polysaccharides with antibiofilm activity share common biophysical and electrokinetic properties. Nature Communications,  May 3;14(1):2553. doi: 10.1038/s41467-023-37925-8.

Usui M, Yoshii Y, Thiriet-Rupert S, Ghigo JM, Beloin C. (2023) Intermitent antibiotic treatment of bacterial biofilms favors the rapid evolution of resistance. Communications Biology, Mar 16;6(1):275. doi: 10.1038/s42003-023-04601-y.

Béchon N, Mihajlovic J, Lopes AA, Vendrell-Fernandez S, Deschamps J, Briandet R, Sismeiro O, Martin-Verstraete I, Dupuy B, Ghigo JM^# (2022) Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron uses a widespread extracellular DNase to promote bile-dependent biofilm formation. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A Feb 15; doi:10.1073/pnas.2111228119.

Stressmann F, Bernal-Bayard J, Pérez-Pascual D, Audrain B, Rendueles O, Briolat V, Bruchmann S, Volant S, Ghozlane A, Haussler S, Duchaud E, Levraud JP, Ghigo JM^# (2021) Mining zebrafish microbiota reveals key community-level resistance against fish infection. The ISME Journal, Oct 19.doi: 10.1038/s41396-020-00807-8.

Béchon N, Mihajlovic J, Vendrell-Fernandez S, Chain F, Langella P, Beloin C, Ghigo JM^# (2020) Capsular polysaccharides cross-regulation modulates Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron biofilm formation. mBio May-June 2020 11(3): e00729-20. doi: 10.1128/mBio.00729-20