BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
PRODID:-//Memento EPFL//
BEGIN:VEVENT
SUMMARY:Faculty Seminar: Mechanomicrobiology: how bacteria sense and respo
 nd to forces
DTSTART:20221006T121500
DTEND:20221006T131500
DTSTAMP:20260531T043702Z
UID:17ccee961be81da468bc50b5b6322d9c1deac92507d9ce4b957270f0
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Alexandre Persat \nWhen initiating infection or colonizing the
 ir environment\, bacteria experience mechanical forces on surfaces\, in fl
 ow\, or within elastic materials. Despite their ubiquity\, how mechanics s
 hape bacterial physiology and behavior is unknown. Pseudomonas aeruginosa 
 is a widespread opportunistic pathogen whose antibiotic resistance is risi
 ng at an alarming pace. P. aeruginosa is acutely adapted to life on surfac
 es: it uses surface-specific motility\, injects pathogenic effectors into 
 host cells upon contact\, and forms biofilms on abiotic and biological mat
 erials. To investigate how mechanics potentiate P. aeruginosa’s surface 
 adaptation arsenal\, my lab has developed novel methodologies allowing to 
 mechanically interrogate bacteria at multiple scales. I will first present
  how mechanics impact surface-specific twitching motility at the single ce
 ll level and biofilm morphogenesis at the multicellular level. Then\, I wi
 ll show that P. aeruginosa controls twitching in response to mechanical in
 put. At the molecular scale\, I will particularly emphasize the mechanosen
 sory function of retractile filaments called type IV pili. Finally\, I wil
 l discuss the ramifications of bacterial mechanobiology in the context of 
 P. aeruginosa infections.\n\nAlex Persat is currently Tenure Track Assista
 nt Professor at the EPFL Global Health Institute and the Institute for Bio
 engineering. He obtained his BSc at Ecole Polytechnique\, Paris and his MS
 c and PhD at Stanford University in Chemical and Mechanical Engineering re
 spectively. After a postdoc in the department of Molecular Biology at Prin
 ceton University\, he started his lab at EPFL where he combines engineerin
 g and microbiology approaches to understand how bacteria sense\, respond a
 nd adapt to their mechanical environment.\n\nThis seminar is part of the e
 valuation of Dr Persat for the promotion to associate professor.
LOCATION:SV 1717 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==SV%201717 https://go.epfl.ch/
 alexpersat
STATUS:CONFIRMED
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR