What if monitoring sleeping bacteria could help save lives? For several years, Mathilde Guzzo has been trying to identify the mechanisms that lead bacteria to change their state depending on their environment. She expects to shape the future of treatments for bacterial infections.

Dormant bacteria are at the root of chronic infections.

Like other organisms, bacteria perceive changes in their environment. They respond by implementing appropriate strategies to survive. They are capable of entering a state known as "dormancy", when they do not multiply. In the case of pathogenic bacteria, this state can occur when they infect a host. Dormant bacteria are more resistant to antibiotics. They can cause chronic diseases or recurring infections. Understanding the reasons behind these changes appears to be crucial in the fight against bacteriological infections.

Understanding the decisions of bacteria

The 2021 ATIP-Avenir grant will allow Mathilde Guzzo to create her own research team. She and other talented scientists will seek to better understand changes in bacteria. When they are not dormant, bacteria have a busy life. Several factors, such as lack of nutrients, can "put bacteria to sleep". If the conditions become favorable again, dormant bacteria transform themselves to prepare for division. This is called differentiation.

Towards a better understanding of infections

Dr. Guzzo will explore what causes bacteria to move from one state to another. First she will observe Caulobacter crescentus, a non-pathogenic river dweller that can divide into two very different cells. Then she will focus on Brucella abortus, a pathogenic bacterium that causes brucellosis in cattle and humans. Dr. Guzzo will study its behavior to clear the way for a better understanding of bacteriological infections.

Mathilde Guzzo in a few words

Mathilde Guzzo is a biochemistry and biotechnology engineer. In 2008, she did her first internship in a research laboratory. This was the beginning of 14 years of research on bacteria. Studying their means of locomotion, developing tests to detect them, wine and food industry, polymer production

At Tâm Mignot’s laboratory in Marseille (CNRS), she wrote a thesis on the bacterium Myxococcus xanthus. In it she described the fascinating cellular mechanisms allowing this organism to change direction when it moves. At MIT (United States), she studied the cell division of Caulobacter crescentus, whose mysteries she continues to unravel today.

ATIP-Avenir Program

Since 2005, the Fondation Bettencourt Schueller has been a partner of the Inserm Avenir program. In 2009, the Avenir program merged with the ATIP program by the CNRS (National Center for Scientific Reasearch). The Foundation has since supported the ATIP-Avenir program which promotes the return or settlement in France of very high-level young researchers, with a research project of exceptional quality, and wishing to create their own team.

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