Virginie Stévenin awarded an FRM Starting Grant to study how pathogenic bacteria feed inside human cells
Virginie Stévenin has received a Starting Grant for Young Research Teams from the Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale (FRM). This grant will support the creation of her research team at the Institute of Pharmacology and Structural Biology (IPBS) and the development of a new research project on bacterial infections.
Some disease-causing bacteria, such as Salmonella, are able to enter human cells and survive in a small compartment called a vacuole, where they are protected from the body’s defenses. To grow in this confined space, the bacteria must access nutrients provided by the host cell. Salmonella, classified by the World Health Organization as a high-priority pathogen, is responsible for potentially severe intestinal infections.
The goal of this project is to understand which nutrients reach the Salmonella-containing vacuole, how the bacterium redirects host nutrient transport systems, and how this process supports its multiplication inside cells.
Similar strategies are used by other important pathogens, including those responsible for tuberculosis and chlamydial infections. By shedding light on how bacteria acquire nutrients inside human cells, this research will improve our understanding of intracellular infections and could open new perspectives for future therapeutic approaches.