Tolerance and Persistence in Bacteria Colony – TolPerCol

In addition to antibiotic resistance mechanisms, antibiotic tolerance and persistence are a challenge for effective therapy. Tolerance and persistence are non-heritable phenotypes that reduce and compromise antibiotic killing efficacy. Those two phenomena allow for a certain fraction of bacteria to escape antibiotic treatment. This survival bacterial fraction is potentially able to recolonize their environment after the treatment and cause the resurgence of the infection. Using systems biology approach coupled with a high-throughput screening platform that can probe bacterial mortality inside bacteria colony, and a synthetic biology approach associated with innovative microscopy protocols, this project proposes to detail and characterize genetic, metabolic and environmental factors involved in tolerance and persistence of bacteria in heterogeneous structured environments.