Questions and AnswersProf. Dr. Philippe Sansonetti

How did you become involved in infection research, what fascinates you about this subject?
I became involved in infection research by the medical side. As far as I can remember, this interest crystallized in the seventies while I was a resident in hematology and nephrology. There I realized how opportunistic infections could, in a short bit of time, annihilate the formidable team efforts required to treat an acute leukemia, or to proceed to a kidney transplantation. My other frustration was to observe that the only issues considered in these particular situations, as well as in the ID wards I also attended, rightly in a way, were therapeutics and antimicrobial resistance, but that little if any interest was dedicated to understanding the mechanisms of these infections. From this emerged my interest in trying to understand these mechanisms. The Mecca was Institute Pasteur. I perceived it as the only place where, thanks to its hospital and research capacities in microbiology and immunology, something novel could be achieved. I was encouraged in this by the reading of Stanley Falkow’s book entitled Infectious Multiple Drug Resistance. The last chapters provided a brilliant vision of the potential of applying bacterial genetics to microbial pathogenesis. It was just a few years after the Nobel Prize had been attributed to Lwoff, Monod and Jacob, and Units like this of Léon LeMinor worked on gram negative pathogens like Salmonella and Shigella. Remained to bridge the gap, I must say that I received outstanding support in this endeavor, particularly by Agnès Ulmann and Yves Chabbert who taught me bacterial genetics. My memorable post doc in the USA with Sam Formal, completed my training and strengthened my conviction.

What are you working on at the moment?
I still work on the pathogenesis of Shigella and Klebsiella infection with a particular interest in learning, through their clever strategies, about some key elements of the innate immune response. I am also increasingly interested in understanding the mechanisms of homeostatic balance established between the host and its commensal flora.

What was a single most important moment of your career?
I had many, including the award of prestigious scientific prizes. However, let me single out two very emotional moments, one medical, one scientific. Both go back to the early stage of my career, and were essential to its development. First is reading my name on the posted list of those who had been successful at the tough competition to become “Interne des Hôpitaux de Paris” in 1973. This was the door opening to become a hospital doctor, this day, I literally flew to announce the news to my future wife, Nicole. Second was my appointment with Jacques Monod in his Director’s office in 1975. I had no idea why a person like him wanted to meet with me. He said “I have heard you were interested in working with us on the mechanisms of (infectious) diseases, would you be interested in Institute Pasteur awarding you a Roux fellowship for this ?” That day, I flew again…

What was your most important scientific discovery?
Invasion and intracellular motility of bacteria.

What drives you and carries you on?
Acquisition of new knowledge is to me a fascination, possibly an obsession. Also fostering the career of young scientists.

Idols?
Four: Claude Bernard, Louis Pasteur, Robert Koch, Charles Nicolle. If you asked for one, it would be difficult, but I think I would vote for Charles Nicolle because of his visionary concept of the “Birth, life and death of infectious diseases”.

What would you recommend to someone starting out in science?
Only one thing: ask the most difficult and intellectually most challenging questions. Otherwise, don’t get into it. Intellectual excitement is science’s premier interest.

What would have been your alternative plan?
I started medicine with the dream of becoming  a pediatric, cardiovascular surgeon. Plan A became plan B, “c’est la vie…”

What are your dreams for the future?
I’d like to be a better grandfather than the father I was. Otherwise, I was just awarded a Chair of Microbiology and Infectious Diseases at the “Collège de France”. I can now fulfill my dream to teach my discipline in an outstanding academic environment and to continue to carry out research in Institute Pasteur.

What do you think is important and should be worked on in the future ?
In our field, I am increasingly shocked by the fact that we are producing so much basic knowledge and so little developments of diagnostic tools, drugs and preventive strategies. I think we have to collectively reconsider the paradigm of basic and applied research being intimately linked like “the tree and its fruits”. This is Pasteur’s legacy.

What do you do when you are not working ?
My wife would answer something like “he feels oppressed…”

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