Dr. Catherine DANIEL: "Recombinant lactic acid bacteria as mucosal biotherapeutic agents"

Wednesday, 27th May, 2015, 12:00, Institute of Specific Prophylaxis and Tropical Medicine, Kinderspitalgasse 15, Vienna IX, Lecture Hall 2

COLLOQUIUM IN PATHOPHYSIOLOGY, INFECTIOLOGY AND IMMUNOLOGY

» Invitation

Catherine DANIEL got her PhD in Microbiology in 1998 on a research topic entitled “Iron metabolism in Bilophila wadsworthia and Acinetobacter baumannii: mechanisms of iron uptake, cloning and sequencing of a fur-like gene in Acinetobacter baumannii“ supervised by Pr. René Courcol from the Centre Hospitalier Régional et Universitaire de Lille. She then worked as a postdoctotal researcher from 1998 to 2001 at the University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA in the laboratory of Dr. J. Leigh, where she worked on the mechanisms of transcriptional regulation in the Archaea domain. She then joined the Institut Pasteur Lille in 2001 to work as a project leader on the European 5th Framework program project on ‘Oral delivery of vaccine and therapeutic products using non-pathogenic lactic acid bacteria’ (LABDEL) in the laboratory of Dr. A. MERCENIER. She acquired management and reporting skills during this project which involved 8 different research groups in Europe.
 Most active collaborations were with the research group of Pr. U. WIEDERMANN at the University of Vienna. This collaboration is still ongoing on projects involving the development of recombinant lactic acid bacteria.
After being the research leader in the LABDEL project, Catherine is now member of the large network of experts interested in disseminating results obtained during the many years of research with lactic acid bacteria as delivery vehicles and in valorizing these research activities by developing strains that are more close to market applications. In 2002, she got a permanent researcher position at the Pasteur Institute in Lille in the laboratory of Pr. B. POT “Bactéries Lactiques et Immunité des Muqueuses” and developed her own projects around recombinant lactic acid bacteria secreting molecules in the digestive tract of mice against intestinal inflammation (the most important research axis of this laboratory).
 Catherine has been collaborating since 2004 with Benoit FOLIGNÉ (who is also part of the project) who has successfully developed a large number of in vitro and in vivo preclinical mouse models of gastrointestinal diseases mimicking IBD (Biographical sketch also included). They both wrote 6 publications together. She trained and supervised technicians and under-graduate students over the past 10 years. She co-supervised two PhD students who got their degree in December 2008 and May 2012, respectively. As part of her job, Catherine has also been coordinating some contracts with industrial partners involving strategy set up, budgeting, staffing activities, and identification and tracking of critical path, risks, contingencies an alternatives.

Host: Prof. Dr. Ursula Wiedermann-Schmidt