Eukaryome Impact on Human Intestine Homeostasis and Mucosal Immunology (eBook)

Multiple demographic or economic parameters contribute to the origin of emerging infections, for example: poverty, urbanization, climate change, conflicts and population migrations. All these factors are a challenge to assess the impact (present and future) of parasitic diseases on public health. The intestine is a major target of these infections; it is a nutrient-rich environment harbouring a complex and dynamic population of 100 trillion microbes: the microbiome. Most researches on the microbiome focus on bacteria, which share the gut ecosystem with a population of uni- and multi cellular eukaryotic organisms that may prey on them.  Our interest focuses on the families of eukaryotic microbes inhabiting the intestine, called 'intestinal eukaryome', that include fungi, protists and helminths. Knowledge on the reciprocal influence between the microbiome and the eukaryome, and on their combined impact on homeostasis and intestinal diseases is scanty and can be considered as an important emerging field. Furthermore, the factors that differentiate pathogenic eukaryotes from commensals are still unknown. This book presents an overview of the science presented and discussed in the First Eukaryome Congress held from October 16th to 18th, 2019 at the Pasteur Institute in Paris.

Dr. Nancy Guillen received her degree in Biology in 1972 at the Universidad Central de Venezuela in Caracas and her Doctorat d'Etat in Natural Sciences with speciality in Microbiology at the University of Paris Sud-Orsay (France) in 1979. She obtained her habilitation diploma at the same University in 1986 and got a permanent position as senior researcher at the National Centre for Research (CNRS-France) in 1982, she was a visiting fellow at Rockefeller University (1979) and at the Public Health Research Institute, New York City (1986-1987). Currently, Dr Nancy Guillén is Emeritus Research Director at the CNRS, a position she has held since 2015. Currently she is interested in understand the cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for the invasion of tissue by the parasitic amoeba Entamoeba histolytica, the agent aetiology of amoebiasis. This infectious disease is endemic world wide. Dr Nancy Guillén has been consecutively vice-president of the scientific council of Pasteur Institute (until 2011), member of the scientific council in the department-INRA Animal Health (2006-2016), scientific coordinator of the Pasteur-Weizmann Council (2008-2013) and co-director of the department of Cell Biology and Infection, Institut Pasteur until 2014. Responsible for the cell biology section at the French National Laboratory of Excellence supporting Parasitology (Labex ParaFrap) and lead the Post-Doctoral Program in this Labex until end of 2019. Her research activity is documented by more than 182 publications in international peer-reviewed journals