Tom Geissmann PhD (Dr. sc. nat.)
Course and current status
Dec 2000, Ph. D. thesis, Dr. sc. nat., Laboratory of Food Microbiology, Prof. Dr. M. Teuber, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Jan 2001 - Jul 2002, Teaching assistant (full time employment) in molecular biology at the University of Applied Sciences, Waedenswil, Switzerland
Aug 2002 - Aug 2003, Post-Doc in the laboratory of Dr. D. Touati, Molecular Genetics of Adaptative Reponses, Institute Jaques Monod, Paris, France: "Mechanism of Fur positive regulation via antisense RNA: study on iron superoxide dismutase regulation in Escherichia coli."
Sep 2003 - Nov 2003, Post-Doc in the laboratory of Dr. M.F. Petit-Glatron, Genetic and Membranes, Institute Jaques Monod, Paris, France: "Autogenous modulation of the Bacillus subtilis sacB-levB-yveA levansucrase operon by the levB transcript."
Dec 2003 - June 2009, Research associate in the laboratory of Dr. P. Romby, Prokaryotic mRNA and regulatory RNA, Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Strasbourg, France: "Regulatory RNAs and virulence in Staphylococcus aureus."
July 2009 - Sep2010, Research associate in the laboratory of Prof. F. Vandenesch, Equipe Pathogénie des Staphylocoques, Faculté de Médecine Laennec, INSERM U851, Lyon, France
since Oct 2010, Senior scientist (CR1 Inserm) in the laboratory of Prof. F. Vandenesch, Equipe Pathogénie des Staphylocoques, Faculté de Médecine Laennec, INSERM U851, Lyon, France
Scientific summary
My research interests are focused on noncoding RNAs in bacteria. They emerged to be important factors in gene regulation at transcriptional but first of all at the post-transcriptional level. Mainly, I'm interested in regulatory RNAs implicated in virulence. RNAIII of Staphylococcus aureus, as an example, is a main effector of a complex regulatory network of virulence that we have studied in detail. My main project is now to study the function of other noncoding RNAs in S. aureus in a clinical context.
