CONFERENCE – MICROBIOLOGIE, INFECTIOLOGIE ET IMMUNOLOGIE

Professor Urs Jenal
Full Professor, Biozentrum, University of Basel

While commensal bacteria generally respect natural barriers of the human body, pathogens are able
to breach epithelia, invade deeper tissue layers and cause life-threatening infections. Pseudomonas
aeruginosa, an opportunistic human pathogen, is a leading cause of severe hospital-acquired
pneumonia, with high mortality rates in mechanically ventilated patients. Effective colonization and
breaching of lung mucosa are hallmarks of P. aeruginosa pathogenesis. But how P. aeruginosa adapts
at the population and at the single cell level to optimize surface attachment, virulence and dispersal
has remained unclear. Our recent studies revealed both deterministic and stochastic mechanisms
that generate functionally distinct bacterial subpopulations to balance P. aeruginosa growth and
dispersal on surfaces. I will first review these latest findings and will then put them into a physiological
context by demonstrating how they contribute to the colonization and breaching of human lung
epithelia. Exposing the respective mechanistic details opens up new ways to control mucosal
infections by a major human pathogen.