Géraldine Laloux

Major achievements

• European Research Council (ERC) Starting Grant “PREDATOR”, 2019-2024
• Vice-chair of the Belgian Society for Microbiology, 2023 - present
• Alvarenga de Piauhy Award, Royal Academy of Medicine, Belgium, 2016

Question

How do predatory bacteria proliferate and kill other bacteria?

Research focus

Understanding the behavior of bacterial cells at the molecular level is vital to control their proliferation and combat antibiotic-resistant infections.

Predatory bacteria, like animal predators, play pivotal roles in shaping bacterial populations within natural environments including the microbiota. Predation involves a specialized molecular weaponry to recognize and digest distinct prey components, including the bacterial envelope, a main target for antibiotics. Identifying these mechanisms could therefore unveil novel strategies against bacterial infections.

Moreover, predatory bacteria challenge textbook paradigms of bacterial proliferation. For instance, Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus grows by filamentation and releases large numbers of progenies (up to 16) upon cell division, while “model” bacteria double their size and produce only two daughter cells. Revealing how predatory bacteria uniquely replicate will contribute to the fundamental cell biology knowledge, as the astounding diversity of bacterial species on Earth only starts being unraveled.

The Laloux lab explores the fascinating predation mechanisms and the cell biology of Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus, whichthrives inside the envelope of other bacteria, including major antibiotics-resistant pathogens. The lab integrates cutting-edge bacterial cell biology approaches such as live fluorescence microscopy and quantitative image analysis at the single-cell level, with molecular biology, bacterial genetics and biochemistry.

Projects

• Predator-induced alterations of prey bacterial cells
• Impact of the prey on the cell cycle of predatory bacteria
• Molecular machineries and signal transduction coordinating prey-predator interactions and cell cycle control
• Spatio-temporal regulation of non-binary division in Bdellovibrio predators
• Mechanisms of cell polarity and subcellular compartmentalization in filamenting bacteria
• Dynamics and architecture of the chromosome during the predatory cycle of Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus

Géraldine Laloux obtained her Master’s degree in Molecular and Cellular Biology from the University of Namur in 2005, after a first research stay in the lab of Prof. Marc Vidal (Dana Farber Cancer Institute & Harvard Medical School). She then joined the lab of Prof. Xavier De Bolle (UNamur), where she obtained a PhD in Sciences in 2009 working on host-pathogen interactions. Géraldine performed a first post-doctoral training in the lab of Prof. Christine Jacobs-Wagner (Yale University), where she studied how bacteria localize proteins at specific times and places during their cell cycle. In 2013, she started a second post-doc at the de Duve Institute in the group of Prof. J.-F. Collet, where she investigated bacterial envelope stress responses and their modulation by antibiotics treatment. After her F.R.S.-FNRS Chargée de Recherches fellowship (2014-2017), she obtained an F.R.S.-FNRS Research Associate position to launch her independent research group at the de Duve Institute.

Honors

• Vice-chair of the Belgian Society for Microbiology (2023)
• AcademiaNet member (2021)
• ERC Starting Grant (2019-2024)
• Fund Maurange award, King Baudouin Foundation (2018)
• Alvarenga de Piauhy award, Royal Academy of Medicine (2016)
• van Itallie fellow of the Belgian American Educational Foundation (2011)
• Bauchau biennial Award for the Best Master thesis in Biology, UNamur (2005)

Affiliations

• Group leader, de Duve Institute
• Research Associate, F.R.S.-FNRS
• Associate Professor, UCLouvain