Brigitte Gicquel

Brigitte Gicquel is a distinguished Professor at the Pasteur Institute where she has held multiple leadership positions since 1978. She currently serves as Head of the Mycobacterial Genetics Unit at the Pasteur Institute in Paris and Head of the Emerging Bacterial Pathogens Unit at the Pasteur Institute of Shanghai. She previously served as interim scientific co-Director of the Institut Pasteur of Shanghai in 2015 and has been a Professor at the Institut Pasteur since 1998.

Dr. Gicquel's research focuses on Mycobacterium tuberculosis genetics and pathogenesis. Her laboratory has developed groundbreaking genetic tools for studying tuberculosis, including the first PCR tests and genotyping methods for rapid tuberculosis diagnosis. Her team determined the first complete DNA sequence of a mycobacterial replicon, developed shuttle vectors for genetic manipulation of mycobacteria, discovered the first mycobacterial transposon, and established procedures for random mutagenesis and allelic replacement. They constructed the first M. tuberculosis mutant library using transposons and identified key virulence genes.

Her most significant contributions include discovering DC-SIGN as the major receptor for M. tuberculosis entry into dendritic cells, identifying mechanisms of multi-drug resistance in tuberculosis, and constructing a promising vaccine candidate against tuberculosis currently undergoing clinical trials in collaboration with the University of Saragoza, Spain. Her publication record spans from 1989 to 2012, showing consistent contributions to tuberculosis research with several highly cited papers in molecular microbiology and infectious disease journals.

Her scientific achievements have been recognized with prestigious awards:

• 2008 Canetti Award, France
• 2006 Award Sustainable Development from the Foundation Ecology and Development, Spain
• 2004 Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur
• 2002 Award Alexandre Joannides from the French Academy of Science

Dr. Gicquel's laboratory has participated in implementing rapid tuberculosis diagnostic tests in low-income countries and has made significant contributions to understanding multi-drug resistance mechanisms in M. tuberculosis. Her team discovered that 50% of MDR isolates and over 90% of those resistant to fluoroquinolones also show resistance to pyrazinamide, highlighting the rapid accumulation of additional resistances in MDR strains.

Her research unit continues to develop new drug screening approaches for antibacterials targeting M. tuberculosis and has designed algorithms for utilizing remnants from GeneXpert samples for results confirmation and case tracing.