Pascale Cossart (born 21 March 1948) is a French

bacteriologist A bacteriologist is a microbiologist, or similarly trained professional, in bacteriology -- a subdivision of microbiology that studies bacteria, typically pathogenic ones. Bacteriologists are interested in studying and learning about bacteria, ...

who is affiliated with the Pasteur Institute of Paris. She is the foremost authority on ''

Listeria monocytogenes ''Listeria monocytogenes'' is the species of pathogenic bacteria that causes the infection listeriosis. It is a facultative anaerobic bacterium, capable of surviving in the presence or absence of oxygen. It can grow and reproduce inside the host ...

'', a deadly and common food-borne

pathogen In biology, a pathogen ( el, πάθος, "suffering", "passion" and , "producer of") in the oldest and broadest sense, is any organism or agent that can produce disease. A pathogen may also be referred to as an infectious agent, or simply a germ ...

responsible for encephalitis, meningitis, bacteremia, gastroenteritis, and other diseases.

Biography

Cossart earned a B.S. and M.S. from Lille University in 1968. She then earned an M.S. in chemistry from

Georgetown University Georgetown University is a private university, private research university in the Georgetown (Washington, D.C.), Georgetown neighborhood of Washington, D.C. Founded by Bishop John Carroll (archbishop of Baltimore), John Carroll in 1789 as Georg ...

in 1971, and her Ph.D. in

biochemistry Biochemistry or biological chemistry is the study of chemical processes within and relating to living organisms. A sub-discipline of both chemistry and biology, biochemistry may be divided into three fields: structural biology, enzymology and ...

at the Pasteur Institute and the

University of Paris , image_name = Coat of arms of the University of Paris.svg , image_size = 150px , caption = Coat of Arms , latin_name = Universitas magistrorum et scholarium Parisiensis , motto = ''Hic et ubique terrarum'' (Latin) , mottoeng = Here and a ...

in 1977 (

University Paris Diderot Paris Diderot University, also known as Paris 7 (french: Université Paris Diderot), was a French university located in Paris, France. It was one of the inheritors of the historic University of Paris, which was split into 13 universities in 197 ...

). She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the

Pasteur Institute The Pasteur Institute (french: Institut Pasteur) is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who invented pasteurization and vaccines ...

. She is currently a Professor and Head of the Unité des Interactions Bactéries Cellules at the Pasteur Institute. In 1998, she received the Richard Lounsbery Prize and the L'Oreal-UNESCO Award for Women in Science. She was awarded the Balzan Prize for Infectious Diseases: Basic and Clinical Aspects in 2013.

Works

Cossart's research has focused on infection by intracellular bacteria, and in particular the infectious agent ''

''. ''Listeria'' is a food-borne bacterial

responsible for numerous illnesses and a mortality rate of 30%. The

bacteria Bacteria (; singular: bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one Cell (biology), biological cell. They constitute a large domain (biology), domain of prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micrometr ...

is one of the best models of intracellular parasitism because it is particularly hardy, able to survive in a variety of cells, cross multiple host barriers, and spreads through

ActA Acta or ACTA may refer to: Institutions * Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, an intellectual property trade agreement * Administrative Council for Terminal Attachments, a standards organization for terminal equipment such as registered jacks * A ...

, the protein responsible for actin-based motility. Cossart's work has shed light on the genetic and biochemical processes that make ''Listeria'' so effective and lethal, identifying the ''

bsh A semi-arid climate, semi-desert climate, or steppe climate is a dry climate sub-type. It is located on regions that receive precipitation below Evapotranspiration#Potential evapotranspiration, potential evapotranspiration, but not as low as a des ...

'' gene; regulatory mechanisms such as an RNA thermosensor that control

expression Expression may refer to: Linguistics * Expression (linguistics), a word, phrase, or sentence * Fixed expression, a form of words with a specific meaning * Idiom, a type of fixed expression * Metaphorical expression, a particular word, phrase, o ...

of the virulence genes such as bsh; and the ways in which ''Listeria'' enters cells and crosses physiological barriers such as the blood–brain barrier, the intestinal barrier, and the

placental barrier The placenta is a temporary embryonic and later fetal organ that begins developing from the blastocyst shortly after implantation. It plays critical roles in facilitating nutrient, gas and waste exchange between the physically separate materna ...

. The discovery by Cossart's lab of the interaction between ''L. monocytogenes protein, internalin, and its cell receptor,

E-cadherin Cadherin-1 or Epithelial cadherin (E-cadherin), (not to be confused with the APC/C activator protein CDH1) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''CDH1'' gene. Mutations are correlated with gastric, breast, colorectal, thyroid, and ovarian ...

, was the first such study that successfully demonstrated the molecular mechanism that permits a bacterial agent to cross the placental barrier. In 2009 Cossart published what she describes as the first "bacterial

operon In genetics, an operon is a functioning unit of DNA containing a cluster of genes under the control of a single promoter. The genes are transcribed together into an mRNA strand and either translated together in the cytoplasm, or undergo splic ...

map"—the transcriptional program that regulates Listeria's behavior in different environmental conditions. By comparing the sequences of Listeria drawn from soil and drawn from the human gut, Cossart identified

non-coding RNA A non-coding RNA (ncRNA) is a functional RNA molecule that is not Translation (genetics), translated into a protein. The DNA sequence from which a functional non-coding RNA is transcribed is often called an RNA gene. Abundant and functionally im ...

s that contribute to Listeria's virulence, identified additional RNA repressors, and determined that

riboswitch In molecular biology, a riboswitch is a regulatory segment of a messenger RNA molecule that binds a small molecule, resulting in a change in production of the proteins encoded by the mRNA. Thus, an mRNA that contains a riboswitch is directly in ...

es can act both downstream and upstream. As part of her work she has also developed important biological tools, including a

transgenic A transgene is a gene that has been transferred naturally, or by any of a number of genetic engineering techniques, from one organism to another. The introduction of a transgene, in a process known as transgenesis, has the potential to change the ...

mouse that was the first animal model to overcome bacterial species-specificity. The mouse carried a human version of a host cell membrane receptor that ''L. monocytogenes'' used to enter cells.

Significant publications

* ''Cellular Microbiology'', 2nd Ed. (textbook), edited by Pascale Cossart, Patrice Boquet, and Staffan Normark * ''Science'' 1 June 2001 * ''Nature'', 17 May 2009

Awards, prizes, and honorary lectures

Carlos J. Finlay Prize for Microbiology The Carlos J. Finlay Prize is a biennial scientific prize sponsored by the Government of Cuba and awarded since 1980 by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) to people or organizations for their outstanding ...

(1995) * Louis Rapkine Medal (1997) *

Richard Lounsbery Award The Richard Lounsbery Award is given to American and French scientists, 45 years or younger, in recognition of "extraordinary scientific achievement in biology and medicine." The Award alternates between French and American scientists, and is awa ...

(1998) * Helena Rubenstein / UNESCO Award for Women in Science Leadership (1998) *Corresponding member, French Academy of Sciences (1999) *Nestle Prize "L’homme et sa nutrition", (2000) * Louis Pasteur Gold Medal, Swedish Society of Medicine, (2000) *Howard Hughes Medical Institute, International Research Scholar, 2000–2005, 2005–2011, 2012–2017 *Member,

German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina The German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (german: Deutsche Akademie der Naturforscher Leopoldina – Nationale Akademie der Wissenschaften), short Leopoldina, is the national academy of Germany, and is located in Halle (Saale). Founde ...

(2001) * Valade Prize, Fondation de France (2003) * Margaret Pittman Lecture,

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health, commonly referred to as NIH (with each letter pronounced individually), is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in the late ...

(2003) *Member,

American Academy of Microbiology The American Society for Microbiology (ASM), originally the Society of American Bacteriologists, is a professional organization for scientists who study viruses, bacteria, fungi, algae, and protozoa as well as other aspects of microbiology. It wa ...

(2004) * GlaxoSmithKline International Member of the Year Award (2007) *

Descartes Prize The Descartes Prize was an annual award in science given by the European Union, named in honour of the French mathematician and philosopher, René Descartes. The prizes recognized Outstanding Scientific and Technological Achievements Resulting f ...

(2007) * ERC Advanced Grant Award (2008) *Member of the European Academy of Microbiology, (2009) * President, Conseil Scientifique of the

* Member, French Conseil National de la Science * Robert Koch Prize (2007) *

Louis-Jeantet Prize for Medicine Established in 1986, the Louis-Jeantet Prizes are funded by the ''Fondation Louis-Jeantet'' and awarded each year to experienced researchers who have distinguished themselves in the field of biomedical research in one of the member states of t ...

(2008)Louis-Jeantet Prize
/ref> *René DESCARTES Prize (2008) for collaborative transnational research, Brussels, (2008) *ERC Advanced Grant Award (2008–2014)(2015–2019) * Foreign member,

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

of London (2010) *Robert Koch Medal of the Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany, (2010) *Van Deenen Medal of the Institute of Biomembranes, Utrecht, The Nertherlands, (2011) *Helmotz International Fellow Award, Berlin, Germany, (2013) * Balzan Prize (2013) *H.P.R. Seeliger Award, Wurzburg, Germany (2013) *Foreign Member of the

National Academy of Medicine The National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly called the Institute of Medicine (IoM) until 2015, is an American nonprofit, non-governmental organization. The National Academy of Medicine is a part of the National Academies of Sciences, Eng ...

(NAM), USA (2014) * FEBS/ EMBO Women in Science Award (2014)^{/sup>
*Jürgen Manchot-Guest Professorship 2014, Düsseldorf, Germany, (2014)
*Doctor ''honoris causa'' of the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom, (2015)
*Associated member of the Académie Nationale de Pharmacie, Paris (2016)
* Ernst Jung Gold Medal for Medicine from the Jung Foundation (2017)
*Prix René et Andrée Duquesne, Paris, France, (2018)
* Heinrich Wieland Prize, Munich, Germany, (2018)
* FEMS Lwoff Award (2019)
*Honorary Doctorate, Karolinska Institute

The Karolinska Institute (KI; sv, Karolinska Institutet; sometimes known as the (Royal) Caroline Institute in English) is a research-led Medical school, medical university in Solna Municipality, Solna within the Stockholm urban area of Sweden. ...
, Stockholm, (2020)
*Selman A. Waksman Award in Microbiology, NAS (2021), National Academy of Science, Washington, USA (to be announced)
*Grand officier of the Legion of Honor in 2020 (commandeur in 2013, officier in 2007).
*Commandeur of the Ordre national du Mérite

The Ordre national du Mérite (; en, National Order of Merit) is a French order of merit with membership awarded by the President of the French Republic, founded on 3 December 1963 by President Charles de Gaulle. The reason for the order's estab ...
in 2010.

References

External links

*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Cossart, Pascale
1948 births
Living people
French microbiologists
French biologists
L'Oréal-UNESCO Awards for Women in Science laureates
Richard-Lounsbery Award laureates
21st-century American women scientists
Howard Hughes Medical Investigators
Georgetown University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni
French women biologists
Women microbiologists
Members of the French Academy of Sciences
Officiers of the Légion d'honneur
Foreign Members of the Royal Society
Commanders of the Ordre national du Mérite
Pasteur Institute
Members of the National Academy of Medicine
Foreign associates of the National Academy of Sciences
Members of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina}