Publications related to Prediction of the spatial evolution and effects of control measures for the unfolding Haiti cholera outbreak

Dangerous acquaintances: the interplay between type IV pili and the type VI secretion system during Vibrio cholerae's environmental lifestyle

Cholera, caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae, has affected humanity throughout history and still impacts millions of people every year. Apart from being a human pathogen, V. cholerae is a common member of the aquatic environment. Due to this natural re ...

EPFL2024

How Vibrio cholerae adapts to the environment: from cell shape transitions to antagonistic behavior

Leonardo Filipe Lemos Rocha

The bacterium Vibrio cholerae is the causative agent of the diarrheal disease cholera, which affects millions of people every year. Apart from being a human pathogen, V. cholerae is also a common member of aquatic habitats. Whilst the mechanism that allow ...

EPFL2022

The molecular treasure box of environmental Vibrio cholerae strains

Natalia Carolina Drebes Dorr

Cholera pandemics have been affecting humankind for centuries and are still considered a major public health problem, especially in regions around the world with poor access to clean water and sanitation. Cholera pandemics are caused by a specific lineage ...

EPFL2021

Modeling infectious disease dynamics towards informed public health interventions, with applications on COVID-19 and cholera

Joseph Chadi Benoit Lemaitre

Emerging and existing infectious diseases pose a constant threat to individuals and communities across the world. In many cases, the burden of these diseases is preventable through public health interventions. However, taking the right decisions and design ...

EPFL2021

Contact networks across ages: computational analysis of epidemiological dynamics

Gianrocco Lazzari

For decades mathematical modeling in epidemiology has helped understanding the dynamics of infectious diseases, as well as describe possible intervention scenarios to prevent and control them. However, such models were relying on several assumptions, such ...

EPFL2020

Genomic Characterization of Mycobacterium lepraeto Explore Transmission Patterns Identifies New Subtype in Bangladesh

Stewart Cole, Andrej Benjak, Charlotte Avanzi

Mycobacterium leprae, the causative agent of leprosy, is an unculturable bacterium with a considerably reduced genome (3.27 Mb) compared to homologues mycobacteria from the same ancestry. In 2001, the genome ofM. lepraewas first described and subsequently ...

Frontiers Media SA2020

Comparison of chitin‐induced natural transformation in pandemic Vibrio cholerae O1 El Tor strains

Melanie Blokesch, Sandrine Stutzmann

The human pathogen Vibrio cholerae serves as a model organism for many important processes ranging from pathogenesis to natural transformation, which has been extensively studied in this bacterium. Previous work has deciphered important regulatory circuits ...

2020

Ecological implications of gene regulation by TfoX and TfoY among diverse Vibrio species

Noémie Matthey, Melanie Blokesch, Esther Jeanne Collas, Candice Stoudmann, Lisa Christina Metzger

Bacteria of the genus Vibrio are common members of aquatic environments where they compete with other prokaryotes and defend themselves against grazing predators. A macromolecular protein complex called the type VI secretion system (T6SS) is used for both ...

2019

Innovative Tools and in vivo Methods for Tuberculosis Drug Discovery and Development

Raphael Christopher Sommer

Worldwide, tuberculosis (TB) is the leading cause of death due to a single infectious agent, claiming 1.6 million human lives and causing >10 million new cases in 2017 alone, mostly in low-income regions. The intracellular pathogen Mycobacterium tuberculos ...

EPFL2019

Safely Managed Hygiene: A Risk-Based Assessment of Handwashing Water Quality

Timothy R. Julian, Matthew Eric Verbyla

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) Indicator 6.2.1 requires household handwashing facilities to have soap and water, but there are no guidelines for handwashing water quality. In contrast, drinking water quality guidelines are defined: water must be "free ...

2019

Vibrio cholerae filamentation promotes chitin surface attachment at the expense of competition in biofilms

Alexandre Louis André Persat

Collective behavior in spatially structured groups, or biofilms, is the norm among microbes in their natural environments. Though biofilm formation has been studied for decades, tracing the mechanistic and ecological links between individual cell morpholog ...

National Academy of Sciences2019

Molecular insights into Vibrio cholerae’s intra-amoebal host-pathogen interactions

Graham Knott, Melanie Blokesch, Candice Stoudmann, Sandrine Stutzmann, Charles Ulric V Van der Henst, Tiziana Scrignari, Catherine Maclachlan, Natalia Carolina Drebes Dorr, Audrey Sophie Vanhove

Vibrio cholerae, which causes the diarrheal disease cholera, is a species of bacteria commonlyfound in aquatic habitats. Within such environments, the bacterium must defend itselfagainst predatory protozoan grazers. Amoebae are prominent grazers, withAcant ...

Nature Research2018

Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics Linked to Horizontal Gene Transfer in Vibrios

Melanie Blokesch, Frédérique Marie Jeanne Le Roux

Vibrio is a genus of ubiquitous heterotrophic bacteria found in aquatic environments. Although they are a small percentage of the bacteria in these environments, vibrios can predominate during blooms. Vibrios also play important roles in the degradation of ...

2018

Circulation of a Quorum-Sensing-Impaired Variant of Vibrio cholerae Strain C6706 Masks Important Phenotypes

Melanie Blokesch, Sandrine Stutzmann

Vibrio cholerae, the causative agent of cholera, is a model organism for studying virulence regulation, biofilm formation, horizontal gene transfer, and the cell-to-cell communication known as quorum sensing (QS). As in any research field, discrepancies be ...

Amer Soc Microbiology2016

On the probability of extinction of the Haiti cholera epidemic

Flavio Finger, Andrea Rinaldo, Enrico Bertuzzo, Lorenzo Mari, Marino Gatto

More than three years after its appearance in Haiti, cholera has already caused more than 8,500 deaths and 695,000 infections and it is feared to become endemic. However, no clear evidence of a stable environmental reservoir of pathogenic Vibrio cholerae, ...

Springer Verlag2016

Competence-induced type VI secretion might foster intestinal colonization by Vibrio cholerae

Melanie Blokesch

The human pathogen Vibrio cholerae exhibits two distinct lifestyles: one in the aquatic environment where it often associates with chitinous surfaces and the other as the causative agent of the disease cholera. While much of the research on V. cholerae has ...

Wiley-Blackwell2015

An intracellular replication niche for Vibrio cholerae in the amoeba Acanthamoeba castellanii

Melanie Blokesch, Charles Ulric V Van der Henst, Tiziana Scrignari, Catherine Maclachlan

Vibrio cholerae is a human pathogen and the causative agent of cholera. The persistence of this bacterium in aquatic environments is a key epidemiological concern, as cholera is transmitted through contaminated water. Predatory protists, such as amoebae, a ...

Nature Publishing Group2015

Rainfall mediations in the spreading of epidemic cholera

Andrea Rinaldo, Enrico Bertuzzo, Lorenzo Righetto, Lorenzo Mari, Marino Gatto

Following the empirical evidence of a clear correlation between rainfall events and cholera resurgence that was observed in particular during the recent outbreak in Haiti, a spatially explicit model of epidemic cholera is re-examined. Specifically, we test ...

Elsevier Sci Ltd2013

Spatially Explicit Conditions for Waterborne Pathogen Invasion

Andrea Rinaldo, Enrico Bertuzzo, Lorenzo Righetto, Lorenzo Mari, Marino Gatto

Waterborne pathogens cause many possibly lethal human diseases. We derive the condition for pathogen invasion and subsequent disease outbreak in a territory with specific, space-inhomogeneous characteristics (hydrological, ecological, demographic, and epid ...

Univ Chicago Press2013

Chitin colonization, chitin degradation and chitin-induced natural competence of Vibrio cholerae are subject to catabolite repression

Melanie Blokesch

Although Vibrio cholerae is a human pathogen its primary habitat are aquatic environments. In this environment, V. cholerae takes advantage of the abundance of zooplankton, whose chitinous exoskeletons provide a nutritious surface. Chitin also induces the ...

Wiley-Blackwell2012