PhD student Bastien Tirtiaux wins best oral communication award at 2022 congress of the French Societies of Medical Mycology and Parasitology

Bastien Tirtiaux joined the Cell and Tissue Laboratory led by Prof. Yves Poumay and Dr. Catherine Lambert de Rouvroit (UNamur, URPhyM) in the frame of a master’s degree in Biochemistry and Molecular and Cell Biology from 2019 to 2021. It is there that he began to work on Malassezia yeasts, which are usually harmless commensal components of the skin microbiome, but sometimes become involved in human disorders. During his master thesis, he developed a model of epidermal infection by Malassezia spp. using reconstructed human tissue.

As a PhD student since January 2022, Bastien is now further exploring the mechanisms underlying the shift from commensal to pathogenic yeasts. Using the previously developed 3D human skin model, he recently observed the ability of Malassezia furfur to switch between a round non-pathogenic form and a more infectious filamentous form called hypha.

In June 2022, he was invited to present his ongoing experimental studies at the Annual Meeting of the French Societies of Medical Mycology and Parasitology in Rouen. His talk entitled “The production of hyphae by a strain of Malassezia furfur is necessary for the invasion of a 3D epidermal tissue” was awarded the best oral communication prize! Congratulations Bastien!