Jean-Claude Sirard

Jean-Claude Sirard received his PhD degree in 1995 from the University of Paris and the Pasteur Institute. Between 1991 and 1998, he studied bacterial pathogenesis of Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent of anthrax. He trained as a postdoctoral fellow between 1998 and 2003 at the Swiss Experimental Research Center on Cancer (ISREC) in Lausanne working on the interaction of intestinal epithelial cells with bacterial pathogens such as Salmonella enterica. He has been a pioneer in identifying flagellin as a major bacterial component that triggers pro-inflammatory responses in mammals. In 2003, he joined the Institut Pasteur de Lille as a laureate of the Young Investigator program ATIPE/AVENIR and he obtained a tenure position at Inserm to develop a research on epithelial innate immunity. The team led by Jean-Claude Sirard investigates the role of immune cells and immune mediators in host defense during respiratory infections by pathogenic bacteria, especially antibiotic-resistant Streptococcus pneumoniae and Klebsiella pneumoniae. The team aims at developing new adjuvants to trigger respiratory innate immunity in prophylaxis and therapeutic settings