LCB – Laboratoire de Chimie bactérienne

Key Figures

• 13 Teams
• 21 Researchers
• 13 Professors
• Assistant Professors
• 21 Engineers/Technicians
• 21 Doctoral students
• 16 CDD

The research carried out at LCB tackles the study of prokaryotic cells taken either as cellular models or as testimonies of the evolutionary and adaptive richness of living organisms.

The “Laboratoire de Chimie Bactérienne” (LCB) is a CNRS / Aix-Marseille University joint unit and is part of the “Institut de Microbiologie de la Méditerranée” (IMM). Created in 1963, the LCB aims at studying the diversity of the bacterial world from genetic, cellular and molecular sides.

The LCB teams are specialized in the study of various molecular mechanisms in diverse models: Escherichia coli, Bacillus subtilis and Caulobacter crescentus; multicellular development models: Myxococcus xanthus and cyanobacteria Anabaena sp.; bacteria of biotechnological or medical interest: Clostridium cellolyticum, Xyllella, marine magnetobacteria, the plant symbiont Sinorhizobium meliloti and the pathogenic bacterium Salmonella enterica; and prophages. The different facets of research in microbiology – fundamental, environmental, biotechnology and pathogenesis – are therefore studied in the unit.

Research

The acquisition of new knowledge is the primary objective of all research carried out at the LCB. Beyond the areas of expertise of each team, numerous collaborations within the unit allow technological and conceptual developments. The LCB has developed various tools allowing a multiscale analysis of the bacterial cell by automating the construction of bacterial mutant libraries and by gathering the phenotypic analysis to modern approaches (high throughput sequencing, FACS, microscopy, microfluidics and in-depth image analysis). In these areas, the LCB has international recognition.

Teaching

An important part of the LCB’s activity is dedicated to teaching and training of students through the involvement of the 13 professors and assistant professors in the “licence en sciences du vivant” (L1-L2-L3) and Engineer School (Polytech) of Aix-Marseille University. The LCB is also strongly involved in the Masters of Microbiology of the Doctoral School of Life and Health Sciences (M1, M2 MIF and M2 IBM), as well as the more recent International Master of Microbiology of Wuhan University of Technology (WUT) opened in 2019.

The laboratory is organised into 13 research teams each with their specific thematic.

The Teams

• Phage cycle and bacterial metabolism – Mireille Ansaldi
• Instrumentation and Analysis for Microbiology – Leon Espinosa
• Oxidative stress damage and repair in Enterobacteriaceae – Benjamin Ezraty
• Cellulosomes and plant polymers degradation – Henri-Pierre Fierobe
  Metabolism and regulation of cellular processes in Bacillus subtilis – Anne Galinier
• Cellular Differentiation and Signalling – Amel Latifi
• Stringent Response and Bacterial Multidrug tolerance – Etienne Maisonneuve
• Molecular and cell biology of respiration in Enterobacteria – Axel Magalon
• Cell biology of bacterial motility – Tâm Mignot
• Fe-S clusters biogenesis and homeostasis – Béatrice Py
• Biology of transport systems in Pseudomonas aeruginosa – Romé Voulhoux
• Marine magnetotactic bacteria – Long-Fei Wu