Priority Research Area Infections
Cellular Microbiology
Mission 
Projects Funding Techniques Publications Staff
Mission
Tuberculosis (TB) is worldwide the most important bacterial infection of humans. The TB agent, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, is a facultative intracellular pathogen able to survive and proliferate inside host macrophages, neutrophils and other phagocytes. We study host-pathogen interactions in tuberculosis on molecular, cellular, animal model and patient levels. Our focus question is how the intracellular niche of the tubercle bacillus determines the pathogen’s fate and transmission, innate and acquired immune responses as well as pathogenesis and, ultimately, anti-mycobacterial drug efficacy and long-term post tuberculosis disease. In the context of pulmonary infections, we also study microbiota functions and resilience, and the biology of the emerging pathobiont Stenotrophomonas maltophilia in mixed fungal and bacterial biofilms.
Research Topics
- Virulence properties and intracellular trafficking of mycobacteria
- Neutrophil-macrophage interactions in tuberculosis
- Host-directed-therapies to tuberculosis
- Biomarkers of exacerbation and post tuberculosis disease
- Nano-carrier based anti-tuberculosis drug delivery
- Imaging of infection and immune processes
- Respiratory tract microbiota functions in infection & immunity
- Pathobiology ofand phage therapy against Stenotrophomonas maltophilia
- Biology of mixed biofilms