Saurabh Chugh is awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellowship

Saurabh Chugh is awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) Postdoctoral Individual Fellowship to study the role of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis exometabolome in mycobacterial virulence.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the causative agent of tuberculosis, kills 1.5 million people every year. Major challenges facing TB eradication include the lack of effective and affordable treatments, the slow pace of innovation in TB drug discovery, and the emergence of antibiotic resistance. Therefore, new approaches to address these challenges are urgently needed. The extraordinary capacity of M. tuberculosis to survive the many host-imposed stresses encountered during its lifecycle largely relies on the metabolic plasticity of this pathogen. This includes its unique ability to extract a variety of nutrients from its host’s cells and tissues, even in nutrient-poor microenvironments such as granulomas, and its production of many virulence factors that interfere with host functions.

Dr. Saurabh Chugh will seek to elucidate the role of M. tuberculosis‘ exometabolome at the host-pathogen interface, with the overarching objectives of advancing our insight into M. tuberculosis‘ metabolism and pinpointing potential novel virulence determinants that might be secreted by the microorganism.

Dr. Saurabh Chugh was awarded an MSCA Individual Postdoctoral Fellowship in 2023 (HORIZON-MSCA-2023-PF-01 call) to begin his project, MIMETIC, in June 2024, in Dr. Olivier Neyrolles’ team under the supervision of Prof. Fabien Létisse.

As part of Horizon Europe, the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) are the European Union’s flagship funding programme for doctoral education and postdoctoral training of researchers. The MSCA programme supports researchers’ careers and fosters excellence in research. The MIMETIC project is referenced under the project ID: 101154312.