Professor Dr Pascale Cossart

Research priorities: Cellular Microbiology, Bacterial-Cell Interactions, Molecular Biology and Cell Biology of the Pathogenic Bacterium Listeria monocytogenes
Pascale Cossart is a French microbiologist who pioneered cellular microbiology. Her work focuses on the interactions of bacteria and cells. In particular, she conducted research on the cellular and molecular biology of the bacterium Listeria monoctogenes.
Pascale Cossart is considered a pioneer within the field of "cellular microbiology ", which emerged in the 1990s when molecular and cellular biology approaches converged.
Pathogenic bacteria enter the host organism via the gastrointestinal tract, the respiratory or urinary tract, and, in the case of injuries, through the skin. They can induce a wide variety of diseases and may even lead to death. Pascale Cossart sought answers to questions such as: How does a bacterium select its host, how does it attack it, and how does it ultimately succeed in colonizing it?
She also aimed to identify a variety of bacterial virulence factors and strategies and therefore was able to explain complicated mechanisms that enable bacteria to enter cells and tissues, survive inside them, and spread.
For example, Pascale Cossart showed how a bacterium targets and crosses the body barrier. She also discovered new mechanisms that allow bacteria to downregulate the host's innate immune response. Pascale Cossart also revealed new mechanisms of gene regulation via RNA in particular an RNA thermosensor regulating virulence. Pascale Cossart's research has established the pathogen Listeria as one of the most extensively studied microorganisms and a benchmark reference for infection biology. Her discoveries on this organism revealed mechanisms that other microbes also exhibit and allowed to solve important questions in cell biology.
New techniques and creative approaches, chosen by Pascale Cossart, allowed us to unravel many mysteries concerning the pathways and mechanisms pathogens choose to produce infection. Her groundbreaking discoveries in the field of molecular biology have significantly improved the understanding of the basic mechanisms of infectious diseases and indicated new ways to combat them.