Our unit “Dynamique des interactions hôte-pathogène” or “Dynamics of host pathogen-interactions” was created in January 2008. We are developing novel approaches to investigate the interactions between pathogens and their hosts in single cells in real time.

In particular, we are interested in deciphering the molecular and cellular basis  of how a number of bacterial pathogens, such as Shigella or Salmonella enter host cells during the infection process. To achieve this, we film these invasion events using innovative fluorescence microscopy. More specifically, we focus on the establishment of novel assays that allow us to monitor pathogen invasion; simultaneously tracking a large number of parameters involved in the invasion processes. In doing this we are able to correlate the pathogen behavior, its intracellular localization and the host responses it induces in single cells in real time.

We are convinced that deciphering the molecular and cellular details of the invasion strategies used by the bacterial pathogens will identify novel drug targets and will provide new insight into fundamental cell biological processes.

We have obtained generous funding for our research by the following agencies and institutions during recent years and for the coming years: the Institut Pasteur, the Agence Nationale pour la Recherche (ANR), the European Union (ERC program and Marie Curie program), the Fondation Schlumberger pour l'Education et la Recherche, the Fundação para a Ciência e Tecnologia (FCT), the French Foreign Ministry, EMBO and HFSPO. We would like to thank them for their support.