Juan Diego Romero Carpio is awarded a 3-year France Excellence Eiffel PhD scholarship to join IPBS
Juan Diego Romero Carpio has been awarded a France Excellence Eiffel doctoral scholarship by the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. The Eiffel program is among the most selective instruments of French scientific diplomacy. Juan Diego will carry out his PhD in Biology and Health at the Université de Toulouse, hosted at IPBS (CNRS/Université de Toulouse) from 2026 to 2029, as part of the “Immune Detection and Elimination of Pathogens” team and the “Mycobacterial Interactions with Host Cells” team, under the joint supervision of Drs. Céline Cougoule and Geanncarlo Lugo. The project draws on the complementary strengths of both teams: the human airway organoid technology developed by Dr. Cougoule in the Etienne Meunier team, and the lung inflammatory biology and spatial omics developed by Dr. Lugo in the Olivier Neyrolles team.
Tuberculosis (TB), caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (Mtb), remains a global health crisis, demanding innovative host-directed therapeutic strategies that transcend traditional pathogen-targeting treatments. The Eiffel PhD project will investigate the uncharted role of the local lung microenvironment in driving TB susceptibility. Specifically, the research will address how bidirectional communication between lung resident stromal cells, such as airway epithelial cells (AECs), and alveolar macrophages (AMs), regulates infection outcomes through infection-induced metabolic reprogramming. AMs act as both the first line of defense against Mtb and an intracellular reservoir where the bacteria persist, with metabolic shifts in both immune and stromal cells emerging as key regulators of infection susceptibility that remain poorly understood.
The project’s main objectives are to map the metabolic reprogramming of lung stromal cells during Mtb infection and to investigate how these TB-driven metabolic changes in the alveolar niche increase AM permissiveness to Mtb. To achieve this, the research integrates airway organoid technology with advanced mass spectrometry imaging, 3D multiplexed imaging, and single-cell/spatial transcriptomics to build a comprehensive metabolic atlas of infected lung tissue, while functional validation, through live imaging, metabolic profiling, and genetic or pharmacological modulation, tests how TB-altered microenvironments reprogram AM function and drive disease susceptibility.
Ultimately, this multidisciplinary project bridges advanced 3D tissue culture, immunometabolism, and spatial omics to pioneer a paradigm shift in understanding host-pathogen interactions. By identifying key metabolic nodes that render alveolar macrophages permissive to Mtb, the work lays a robust foundation for host-directed therapies aimed at reprogramming the lung microenvironment. Furthermore, this doctoral training provides a vital bridge for bilateral scientific exchange, strengthening international research networks between European institutions and Latin America.
Welcoming an Eiffel laureate reflects IPBS’s attractiveness as a doctoral training environment and the institute’s long-standing international commitment to tuberculosis research.
France Excellence Eiffel scholarships are a French government’s program to support scientific excellence, developed by the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs. It enables French higher education institutions to welcome foreign students in their masters and PhD programs. Juan Diego Romero Carpio’s project is part of the only PhD project which has been awarded a scholarship out of the six submitted by the Université de Toulouse for 2026 call; making him one of the 63 Ph.D. students to benefit each year from such a scholarship at national level in 2026.