Alain Filloux

Alain Ange-Marie Filloux is a French microbiologist who is a Professor of Molecular Microbiology at Imperial College London. His research looks at the chronic infection of Pseudomonas aeruginosa, a gram-negative bacterium that causes nosocomial infections in people who are immunocompromised.

Alain Ange-Marie Filloux
Alma materUniversite d'Aix-Marseille II
Scientific career
InstitutionsUtrecht University
French National Centre for Scientific Research
Imperial College London
ThesisEtude de la secrétion des protéines chez Pseudomonas aeruginosa (1988)

Early life and education

Filloux was a graduate student at Universite d'Aix-Marseille II, where he started to study protein secretion in Pseudomonas aeruginosa.[1][2] He moved to the Netherlands for his postdoctoral research, where he joined Utrecht University.[3]

Research and career

Filloux was promoted to Assistant Professor at Utrecht University, where he explored different families of gram-negative bacteria.[4] He identified that a similar mechanism is responsible for the regulation of transport molecules across the family of bacteria that includes Pseudomonas aeruginosa.[4] This finding allows for the modeling of secretion systems across gram-negative bacteria, essential to understanding their pathogenicity.[4]

In 1994, Filloux was appointed to the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), where he was eventually made head of the research unit. In 2008 he joined Imperial College London, where he leads the Centre for Molecular Bacteriology and Infection.[5] He continues to study the mechanism of action of bacteria, as well as investigating antibiotic resistance.[6][7] When studying the properties of Enterobacteriaceae bacteria, Filloux developed a protocol for rapid antibiotic resistance screening using mass spectrometry.[8]

In particular, Filloux has investigated the Type VI secretion system (T6SS) (so-called molecular crossbow) of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and showed it contains toxins in the tip of the molecular arrowhead.[9] The arrowhead, VgrG2b, contains metallopeptidase, which can target the cellular envelope and cut up proteins.[9] This type of mechanism is similar to Β-lactam antibiotics.[9]

Awards and honours
  • 2004 Fondation Bettencourt Schueller Coup d’élan[10]
  • 2006 Jacques Piraud award for research on infectious diseases[10]
  • 2007 Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award[4][11]

Selected publications
  • Ventre, Isabelle; Goodman, Andrew L.; Vallet-Gely, Isabelle; Vasseur, Perrine; Soscia, Chantal; Molin, Søren; Bleves, Sophie; Lazdunski, Andrée; Lory, Stephen; Filloux, Alain (2006-01-03). "Multiple sensors control reciprocal expression of Pseudomonas aeruginosa regulatory RNA and virulence genes". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 103 (1): 171–176. Bibcode:2006PNAS..103..171V. doi:10.1073/pnas.0507407103. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 1324988. PMID 16373506.
  • Filloux, Alain; Hachani, Abderrahman; Bleves, Sophie (2008-06-01). "The bacterial type VI secretion machine: yet another player for protein transport across membranes". Microbiology. 154 (6): 1570–1583. doi:10.1099/mic.0.2008/016840-0. ISSN 1350-0872. PMID 18524912.
  • Vallet, Isabelle; Olson, John W.; Lory, Stephen; Lazdunski, Andrée; Filloux, Alain (2001-06-05). "The chaperone/usher pathways of Pseudomonas aeruginosa: Identification of fimbrial gene clusters (cup) and their involvement in biofilm formation". Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 98 (12): 6911–6916. Bibcode:2001PNAS...98.6911V. doi:10.1073/pnas.111551898. ISSN 0027-8424. PMC 34452. PMID 11381121.
  • Filloux, Alain; Ramos, Juan-Luis (2014). Pseudomonas Methods and Protocols. ISBN 978-1-4939-0473-0. OCLC 1058867858.

References
  1. Filloux, Alain (1988). Etude de la secrétion des protéines chez Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Thesis) (in French). OCLC 1164072817.
  2. "Filloux". Fondation Bettencourt Schueller (in French). 2014-09-30. Retrieved 2021-01-05.
  3. "FEMS Expert: Professor Alain Filloux". FEMS. Retrieved 2021-01-05.
  4. "Filloux". Fondation Bettencourt Schueller (in French). 2014-09-30. Retrieved 2021-01-05.
  5. "Professor Alain Filloux". Imperial College London. Retrieved 2021-01-05.
  6. "A toxic bullet involved in bacterial competition found by researchers | Imperial News | Imperial College London". Imperial News. Retrieved 2021-01-05.
  7. "A toxic bullet involved in bacterial competition". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2021-01-05.
  8. "New test can identify dangerous bacteria resistant to last-resort antibiotic | Imperial News | Imperial College London". Imperial News. Retrieved 2021-01-05.
  9. "'Poisoned arrowhead' used by warring bacteria could lead to new antibiotics | Imperial News | Imperial College London". Imperial News. Retrieved 2021-01-05.
  10. "Honours and Memberships - Professor Alain Filloux". www.imperial.ac.uk. Retrieved 2021-01-05.
  11. "rae 2008 : submissions : ra5a". www.rae.ac.uk. Retrieved 2021-01-05.
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