Olivier Dussurget

I am interested in the discovery of microbial factors and host mechanisms playing a critical role in the pathogenesis of infectious diseases and whose characterization could help develop new diagnostic and therapeutic tools. I focus most of my research activities on the identification of new virulence mechanisms of the model pathogen Listeria monocytogenes. I have been involved in the first comparative genomic analysis of L. monocytogenes and the non pathogenic species Listeria innocua. This genomic approach led to the identification of many new bacterial factors necessary for efficient colonization of the host, including a bile salt hydrolase required for resistance to bile and a serine/threonine phosphatase regulating the superoxide dismutase antioxidant activity and the elongation factor EF-Tu. Our current research, with Marie-Anne Nahori and Camille Aubry, is aimed at understanding the strategies evolved by Listeria to subvert the host immune response and to spread within the host, using a combination of genomic and in vivo transcriptomic approaches.