Grant: Operating Grant

We study how our cells respond to infection by bacteria. In preliminary work, we have identified a critical new aspect of this response to the infection: we have observed that the entry of these micro-organisms into our cells induces a very rapid metabolic starvation. Indeed, approximately 1 hour after invasion, our cells respond as if they were missing amino acids, which are key building blocks of our molecules. Not only did we observe that the infected cells are starved, but we also showed that this has critical consequences for the way we respond to these intruders: by mounting a starvation response, our cells promote a "self-eating" (also known as autophagy) process, which replenishes amino acids, but also favors the destruction of the bacteria. The discovery of this cellular process triggered after infection might prove to be important for the development of new therapeutic strategies against bacteria that cause diseases in humans, such as listeriosis, salmonellosis or tuberculosis.