On Monday, October 16th 2023, at 11am, it will be our pleasure to welcome the Dr. Eric Oswald, professor at the medical faculty of the University of Toulouse and deputy director of the “Institut de recherche en santé digestive” (IRSD) (link in french), as a speaker for the Pierre Talbot conferences of the Infectiopôle INRS. A trained veterinarian (1987, National Veterinary School of Toulouse), Dr. Oswald also obtained a Ph.D. in microbiology in 1991 at the Claude Bertrand University, and acted until 2009 as a research director for the National Veterinary School of Toulouse until eventually being appointed as a professor at the medical faculty of the University of Toulouse in 2009. He is currently a bacteriology professor at the same faculty, and a hospital practitioner in the laboratory of bacteriology of the university hospital.

The principal research interests of Dr. Oswald and his team are focused on the study of toxins, by trying to discover the fine line between pathogenicity and commensalism. To learn more, you may consult his mini curriculum vitae, available on the web site of the IRSD.

His presentation, which will be held on October 16th at 11am in the Pasteur room of the AFSB centre, is titled “Bacterial extracellular vesicules: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly”. As its name suggests, the conference will focus mostly on the role of bacterial extracellular vesicules, and how these small structures can exacerbate pathogenic properties of bacteria. Dr. Oswald was kind enough to provide us with an abstract, which you can read below:

“Escherichia coli strains are responsible for a majority of human extra-intestinal infections, resulting in huge direct medical and social costs. We have shown that HlyF encoded by large conjugative virulence plasmids is a Short-chain. Dehydrogenases/Reductases (SDRs) which modify the bacterial outer membrane composition. Expression of HlyF leads to the overproduction of outer membrane vesicles (OMVs). We showed that these specific nanosized proteoliposomes, fuse to the host cells and inhibit the autophagic flux by impairing the autophagosome-lysosome fusion, thus preventing the formation of acidic autolysosomes and autophagosome clearance. Furthermore, these specific OMVs are more prone to activate the non-canonical inflammasome pathway. Our findings revealed an unsuspected role of OMVs, highlighting the fact that these extracellular vesicles have exacerbated pathogenic properties beyond the simple overproduction of nanoparticles loaded with PAMPs.“

Following the conference, a pizza lunch will be offered to all who may be interested to join us for further discussion with Dr. Oswald, as well as to those who simply want to take advantage of this opportunity to discuss and have a good time with their colleagues. All are invited, but we wish to highlight that this invitation is also extended to all students, who are encouraged to join us and participate!