Grant: Operating Grant

Campylobacter jejuni is a food and water-borne pathogen. It is the major cause of diarrhea with up to 1.8 billion illnesses and 3 million deaths each year worldwide. Our understanding of how C. jejuni causes disease is extremely limited. There is currently no vaccine against C. jejuni and our current antibiotic treatments are threatened by the emergence of antibiotic resistance. The main objective of our research proposal is to understand how Campylobacter jejuni colonizes the host's intestine, a prerequisite to disease development. In a healthy individual, the intestine is colonized by trillions of microbes which constitute the "normal" microbiota. In order to be a successful pathogen and cause diarrhea, C. jejuni must either compete or cooperate with the host's microbiota for nutrients. We propose here to characterize the interactions between C. jejuni and the host's microbiota. We will study how C. jejuni acquires essential nutrients and how it adapts to the harsh conditions of the intestine. This work will generate a better understanding of C. jejuni metabolism and how it survives in the host. This information will provide targets and facilitate the design of novel strategies for preventing or treating Campylobacter infections.