NARILIS is partner of the CRITICAL project, selected by the EOS programme

The Excellence of Science (EOS) programme aims at promoting collaborations between researchers from the Flemish and French-speaking community. This four-year research programme is jointly funded by the FNRS and FWO, with a total budget of around 120 million €. The list of projects selected in the framework of the EOS 2021 call has recently been published.
Dr. Régis Hallez, group leader at NARILIS in Bacterial Cell cycle & Development, is involved in one of the 36 projects that will be financed! The project is entitled "deCiphering bacterial peRsIsTence of Individual Cells down to Atomic Level" (CRITICAL). It addresses questions related to antibiotic therapy failure in urinary tract infections, which chronic nature can be attributed to antibiotic-tolerant and transiently dormant subpopulations called persisters. The aim of the project is to understand awakening of these uropathogenic E. Coli persisters in individual bacterial cells up to the atomic level.

The consortium for this project consists of researchers from four Belgian universities (KU Leuven as coordinator, VUB, UCLouvain and UNamur) and one international partner (University of Würzburg, Germany). In this joint collaborative effort, the research group of Régis Hallez will provide its know-how and support for the identification and the characterisation of the molecular processes that drive the awakening of persister cells after antibiotic treatment.

Project abstract

Contact: regis.hallez@unamur.be