The Unit includes the National Reference Center (CNR) for Salmonella, Shigella/Escherichia coli and the NRC for Vibrio and Cholera, and a WHO Collaborating Center. Our research interests are strongly linked to public health and reference activities for the enteric bacterial pathogens monitored by the Unit. We work on three partly overlapping themes: (i) identification and dynamics of bacterial populations resistant to antibiotics (ii) development of new bacterial typing and diagnostic tools, (iii) population structures and the evolution of genetically monomorphic pathogenic agents, with a special focus on emergent, epidemic and antimicrobial-resistant bacterial populations.