“Joli mois de l’Europe” | Saurabh Chugh completes MSCA fellowship and launches his new ANRS MIE-funded project on tuberculosis
As part of the Joli Mois de l’Europe, IPBS is highlighting one of its European projects, a concrete example of how the European Union supports ambitious, collaborative research addressing major scientific and societal challenges. Led by teams engaged in international partnerships, this project illustrates the strong contribution of Toulouse-based research to the European Research Area.
At the end of May 2026, Dr Saurabh Chugh will complete his Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) postdoctoral fellowship at IPBS (Toulouse), marking the conclusion of the MIMETIC project. Building directly on this work, he will begin a new research project funded by ANRS MIE, entitled METEOR.
A microbiologist specializing in Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Saurabh Chugh has developed broad expertise spanning molecular biology, bacterial genetics, host–pathogen interactions, as well as drug and vaccine development. He completed his PhD at Jawaharlal Nehru University in partnership with the Translational Health Science and Technology Institute (JNU–THSTI) in India, where he investigated how inorganic polyphosphate regulates M. tuberculosis physiology, virulence, and vaccine potential. During his MSCA fellowship at IPBS (Toulouse), he explored a relatively uncharted aspect of M. tuberculosis biology: the exometabolome, i.e. the small metabolites released by the bacterium into its environment.
The MIMETIC project led to key advances, notably the establishment of robust NMR- and mass spectrometry-based workflows to characterize these extracellular metabolites. His work suggests that M. tuberculosis secretes a diverse and dynamic repertoire of compounds, including sugars, amino acids, and signaling molecules, whose composition may vary depending on environmental conditions. These results provide a foundation that could help uncover how bacterial metabolism shapes host–pathogen interactions and may open new perspectives for future research in this area.
Beyond its scientific results, the MSCA fellowship enabled Saurabh Chugh to expand his expertise into metabolomics and microbial metabolism, while strengthening his independence and ability to develop a coherent research programme, marking an important step on his scientific career
Starting in June 2026, the METEOR project (Deciphering the role of the M. tuberculosis exometabolome in host–pathogen interactions) will take this research further. Funded by the French agency ANRS MIE, it aims to move from discovery to mechanistic understanding by identifying key metabolites, uncovering the pathways that produce them, and determining their role in infection and immune modulation.
Conducted within the “Mycobacterial Interactions with Host Cells” team at IPBS, led by Olivier Neyrolles, METEOR will combine metabolomics, mycobacterial genetics, and infection models to investigate how secreted metabolites influence macrophage responses, bacterial fitness, and disease progression.
At a time when tuberculosis remains a major global health challenge, particularly due to the rise of drug-resistant strains, this work could help identify new metabolic vulnerabilities of the pathogen and open avenues for innovative therapeutic strategies.
The transition from the MSCA-funded MIMETIC project to the ANRS MIE-supported METEOR project highlights both the scientific relevance of these findings and Saurabh Chugh’s progression toward research independence.