ERS Research Award: Innovation In Non-Tuberculous Mycobacteria Science And Medicine 2019

Dr. Laurent Kremer has a PhD in Molecular Microbiology and is the Director of Research (DR1) at INSERM, and heads the team Mycobacterial Pathogenesis and Novel Therapeutic Targets at the Institut de Recherche en Infectiologie de Montpellier (IRIM), Montpellier, France.

Education and scientific positions:

• 2007: Habilitation to supervise research (HDR), University of Montpellier.
• 1995: PhD, Pasteur Institute-Lille, France.
• 1991: Engineer in Biotechnology, Strasbourg, France.
• 1998-2000: Post-doc at Colorado State University (Fort Collins, CO) and Univ of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK.
• 1996-1997: Post-doc at the Institut de Biologie de Lille, France.

Scientific activity and interests in the NTM field:

• Around 180 publications and book chapters/review articles in the mycobacterial field
• My recent achievements are of fundamental interest with high a potential of medical application:
• Studying the physio(patho)logy of M. abscessus by focusing on cell wall-associated components to identify enzymes involved in the biosynthesis, transport and remodeling of the mycobacterial envelope.
• Describing mechanisms of drug resistance in M. abscessus, particularly those involving efflux pumps.
• Discovering new NTM drugs with an emphasis on their mode of action, including screening of chemical libraries, generation of resistant mutants, selection of active inhibitors and characterization of their targets using genetic/biochemical/structural approaches.
• Deciphering and imaging immunopathogenesis of M. abscessus infection using the zebrafish model of infection.