Muriel Masi

I prepared my Ph.D. at Aix-Marseille Université, focusing on antibiotic efflux pumps in Gram-negative bacteria responsible for hospital epidemic episodes. In particular, the TolC family of outer membrane proteins interested me. As part of this project, I received training in the techniques of expression, purification, and reconstitution of membrane proteins. I defended my thesis in 2005, before moving to Arizona State University (Dr Rajeev Misra Lab) and then to the Institut Pasteur in Paris (Dr Cécile Wandersman Lab) as a post-doc fellow. During this period, I continued studying TolC proteins' functions in colicin translocation and bacterial toxin export. In 2009, I was appointed as an Assistant Professor in molecular biology and biochemistry at the Université Paris Saclay, where I studied the biogenesis of mycomembrane proteins in corynebacteria. In 2013, I accepted a contract position at AMU as part of a European project that brought together academic and industrial partners to study antibiotic translocation in Gram-negative bacteria. During this period, I contributed to developing an innovative approach that used synchrotron light to quantify fluorescent antibiotics in bacteria. At the end of my contract, I returned to UPSaclay before assuming a permanent position at the MCT unit at AMU in 2021. There, I have been engaged in pedagogical activities at the Faculty of Pharmacy while concurrently pursuing my research initiatives on antibiotic transport in Gram-negative bacteria, with a particular inclination towards "synchrotron" methodologies.