CV Science

Cecile Arrieumerlou PhD, HDR, CR1 INSERM, Group leader at Institut Cochin

Course and current status

Cécile Arrieumerlou studied genetics and biochemistry at the Université Paris Sud Orsay (Paris France). She obtained a PhD from Université Paris Paris Sud Orsay in 1999 for her work on interleukin-2 and T lymphocyte receptor activation under the supervision of Dr Alain Trautmann. In 2000, she joined the laboratory of Prof. Tobias Meyer at Stanford University Medical School to work on chemotaxis signaling. There, she also initiated a project on the inflammatory response of epithelial cells infected with Shigella flexneri.

In 2006, C. Arrieumerlou was appointed at the Biozentrum (University of Basel) as Assistant Professor of infection biology. She developed a project aiming at deciphering the cellular pathways involved in the entry process of S. flexneri in epithelial cells, in the survival of infected cells and in inflammation. In 2012, she obtained a CR1 INSERM Position in France. In 2014, she was recruited at Institut Cochin via an international call and created a new research group investigating the signaling pathways regulating innate immunity in bacterial infections.

Scientific summary

The ability of a host organism to mount an innate immune response to bacterial infections is critical. Epithelial cells play a critical role in this process. They act as sentinels of the immune system, and largely contribute with macrophages to the secretion of factors that orchestrate inflammation and limit the dissemination of bacteria in infected tissues. Our goal is to understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms that control the inflammatory response of epithelial cells during a bacterial infection.