Microbial systems (SYSMIC)

Presentation

Coordinators – Raffaele IEVA and Calum JOHNSTON

The research teams of the Microbial Systems (SYSMIC) research axis of the CBI focus their study on microorganisms including bacteria and archaea, as well as organelles of proteobacterial origin. A wide variety of fundamental research topics are addressed by the teams of this axis, through integrative analysis of key and fundamental aspects of the biology of these microorganisms:

• Organization, evolution, maintenance, plasticity and expression of bacterial and archaeal genomes
• Horizontal and vertical gene transmission systems
• Assembly and dynamics of microbial cell molecular machines, superstructures and organelles
• Bacterial cell-cycle
• Bacterial collective behaviors
• Bacterial adaptation by multi-layer interactions of gene networks
• Bacterial stress responses, antimicrobial tolerance, resistance and persistence

Our projects employ methodologies dedicated to the study of bacteria and archaea, including molecular genetics, genome engineering and bioinformatics, protein purification and biochemistry along with technologies available at the CBI and at the neighbouring institutes, including high-resolution cell imaging, microfluidics, genome-wide screens of genetic associations, structural approaches such as cryo-electron microscopy/tomography, mass-spectrometry, BSL2 facilities, a computer cluster, the Big-A bioinformatic/biostatistic core facility  and the GenoToul bioinformatics facility for large data analysis and simulation.

Our scientific animation is organized in four main forms:

• Internal SysMic Seminar: an internal talk series organized on a monthly basis to offer our PhD students, post-doc, staff scientists and engineers the opportunity to present their ongoing data.
• Project Leader Days: organized to present projects in an early development phase and provide an environment favourable to all aspects of project leadership, including its scientific progress, management and funding.
• SYSMIC Research Day: a scientific day organized once a year to offer our PhD students, post-doc and staff scientists the opportunity to present their ongoing data as poster presentations.
• External seminars, organized on demand.