Arnaud Gutierrez “Progress in Antibiotic Persistence: We Found the Needle in the Haystack”

Infectious diseases remain a major public health challenge, exacerbated by the rise of resistance to antimicrobial treatments. The overall goal of this project is to identify new genetic and physiological determinants to better understand therapeutic failures associated with bacterial infections. This work focuses on the mechanisms underlying bacterial survival and adaptation to lethal stresses, particularly those induced by antibiotics and bacteriophages. By combining approaches from genetics, molecular biology, and microfluidics, we explore the links between metabolism and bactericidal activity to elucidate the phenomena of tolerance and persistence. We also aim to understand how environmental structuring influences the resilience of bacterial populations to antibiotics and bacteriophages. Finally, we investigate how the selective pressure exerted by certain bacteriophages can promote the emergence of antibiotic resistance. Together, these studies contribute to a deeper understanding of microbial adaptive dynamics and pave the way for new therapeutic strategies to combat antimicrobial resistance.