Philippe Sansonetti | |
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.jpg) Philippe Sansonetti, in 2014 | |
| Born | Philippe Joseph Sansonetti (1949-04-09)9 April 1949 (age 75) Paris, France |
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| Awards | ForMemRS (2014)[1] Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine (1994)[2] |
| Website | www |
Philippe J. Sansonetti (born 9 April 1949) is a French microbiologist, professor at thePasteur Institute and theCollège de France in Paris. He is the director of theInserm Unit 786 (Microbial colonisation and invasion of mucosa) and of the Institut Pasteur laboratory Pathogénie Microbienne Moléculaire.[3][4][5][6][7][8]
Philippe Sansonetti completed General Microbiology, General Virology and Immunology courses at the Institut Pasteur and received his MS degree in Biochemistry/Microbiology from theUniversity Paris VII Diderot in 1978 and obtained his MD degree from theUniversity Paris VI in 1979. After a research fellowship at the Unité de Bactériologie Médicale headed by Léon Le Minor, he undertook a post-doctoral position in the laboratory of Professor Samuel Formal in the Department of Enteric Diseases at theWalter Reed Army Institute of Research, Washington, D.C. He returned to thePasteur Institute in 1981 to the Enterobacteria Unit (Unité des entérobactéries) where he started his own research group. In 1989, he created and headed the Unité de Pathogénie Microbienne Moléculaire (Molecular Microbial Pathogenesis Unit). He practicedinternal medicine at the Institut Pasteur hospital (1981–1985) before becoming head of itsoutpatient clinic (1985–1995) and then becoming its medical director (1995–1999 and 2004–2007). He was chairman of its Departments of Bacteriology and Mycology (1989–1992) and Cell Biology and Infection (2002–2006).
Sansonetti has held several scientific administration positions at INSERM,French Ministry of Research and Technology, as well as at theWorld Health Organization where he was chairman of the Steering committee on Diarrheal Diseases Vaccine Development.
Research performed by Philippe Sansonetti has mainly been focused on the understanding of several aspects of the pathogenesis ofShigella, a bacterium causing severe diarrhoea. His work spans a large set of disciplines in biology and medicine and ranges from molecular genetics, to cell biology,immunology and the development ofvaccines againstdysentery. Sansonetti's laboratory has notably shown thatShigella pathogenesis is imparted by a large virulence plasmid containing apathogenicity island encoding atype three secretion system required for entry intoepithelial cells; characterised the molecular mechanisms leading toShigella epithelial cell invasion and intracellular motility; demonstrated thatShigella killsmacrophages bypyroptosis; identified that intracellular bacteria are detected by Nod proteins leading to production ofpro-inflammatory cytokines and identified a pool ofShigella effectors controlling bothinnate andadaptive responses. He also actively contributes to the development of vaccine candidates against the major shigellae causing dysentery in the developing world.
Sansonetti is the author of over 500 publications in peer-reviewed journals and has served as an editor of several professional publications for many years. He is considered to be one of the founders of thecellular microbiology field and has launched an eponym scientific publication dedicated to this field. His achievements in science have been recognised by numerous awards, including:
He was appointed a Knight of the National Order of the Legion of HonourLégion d'honneur and Officer of theOrdre National du Mérite. He has also been elected Member ofEuropean Molecular Biology Organisation, theFrench Academy of Sciences, theGerman Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, theAmerican Association for the Advancement of Science the USNational Academy of Sciences, and corresponding member of theFrench Academy of Medicine. He is also aHoward Hughes Medical Institute scholar. Since 2008, he has held the position of Professor at theCollège de France, recipient of the Microbiology and Infectious Diseases Chair. His nomination for theRoyal Society reads:
Sansonetti has pioneered the study of molecular pathogenesis of bacterial infections and cellular microbiology, based on his discovery of the mechanism of cell invasion by Shigella. He has led the field practically and conceptually, by discovering key processes relevant to many pathogens and demonstrating the way in which bacteria subvert eukaryotic cells for their growth. These include actin-dependent entry, cell-to-cell spread, pro-inflammatory apoptosis, intracellular sensing of bacteria, regulation of host responses by post-translational modifications, repression of innate immunity genes, and blocking of T-cell migration. Collectively his work has provided the most complete and unified view of a bacterial-controlled disease process.[1]
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