Registration:
http://www.akademien-schweiz.ch/en/index/International/Balzan_Prize/Balzan2016.html

Pascale Cossart will give a lecture on «The bacterial pathogen Listeria monocytogenes: a unique model in biology» at the EPFL on the 14 December 2016. The French professor and head of the «Unité des Interactions Bactéries-Cellules» at the Pasteur Institute has shown that Listeria and other bacteria induce rearrangements in the actin cytoskeleton and the cell membrane of the host cell to permit bacterial invasion. These studies have inspired many other investigations into bacterial signalling and intracellular manipulations that facilitate microbial uptake by the host organism. The new techniques and the creative approaches taken by Pascale Cossart have allowed the multiple ways and mechanisms used by pathogens for efficient infection to be unravelled. Her work has illuminated the ways pathogens exploit and subvert host cell function – and ultimately will facilitate the development of new therapeutic strategies.
Her lecture will be preceded by a short presentation by Melanie Blokesch (EPFL) on «Fighting for DNA - how the cholera-causing pathogen steals genes from its neighbors». The final discussion, chaired by Gisou van der Goot (EPFL), will give the audience - consisting of specialists as well as interested parties - the possibility to participate actively. The event will be concluded by a «Cocktail dinatoire».

14 December 2016, 17h - 19h, Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL)
In cooperation with the International Balzan Prize Foundation and the School of Life Sciences of the EPFL


Balzan lecture
Host: G. Van der goot (GHI, EPFL)

time and place to be announced