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 Alain Stintzi Associate Professor MSc. Universite Louis-Pasteur 1992 Research Interests : Microbial genomic, gene expression and regulation, microarray and functional genomic. Foodborne pathogens, host-pathogen interactions, colonization and virulence factors, animal models of human infection, and gut-microbe interactions. Campylobacter jejuni , iron acquisition and metabolism, and stress responses. Major Research Activities : Our current research seeks to identify how human pathogens colonize the host gastrointestinal tract. We are not solely looking at the pathogen level but are also trying to understand the interplay of the pathogen, the endogenous gut microbial community as a whole, and the host. While classical microbiology seeks to understand the function of a gene or a few groups of genes from one single organism, our research aims to elucidate the role of all the genes and how they relate to one another from an entire microbial community. In particular, our research seeks to understand the dynamic interactions between the different components of the gut environment upon the stressful colonization and invasion by a pathogen in order to create a detailed picture on how a pathogen operates. We have initiated these lines of research by using the foodborne Campylobacter jejuni as the model pathogen organism. Campylobacter jejuni is a major cause of gastroenteritis and Guillain-Barre syndrome worldwide. The main goal of our research is to identify Campylobacter colonization and virulence determinants. These determinants could then contribute to the development of more effective methods to diagnose, manage and ultimately prevent Campylobacter infections. During infection of the host, many microbial pathogens like Campylobacter spp. must survive and grow in diverse environments, suggesting that these organisms have a complex response to growth in the host. Therefore, the inspection of the gene expression profile in these diverse environments is essential to understand the range of events controlling Campylobacter pathophysiology. We are using functional genomic to investigate Campylobacter responses to different relevant environmental stimuli, in particular iron starvation, oxidative stresses, and the in vivo environment. Overall, our research combines techniques from various scientific disciplines ranging from microbiology, genetic, cell biology, functional genomic, and microarray technologies, to pathology, medicine, animal model of human infection, chemistry, mathematic, biochemistry and bioinformatics . Selected Publications :
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