Welcome to the Barbier Lab!

We developing means to prevent and treat respiratory infections caused by the deadly bacterial opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. People with cystic fibrosis and immunocompromised patients (AIDS, cancer chemotherapy…) are extremely susceptible to infections caused by this bacterium. Unfortunately, P. aeruginosa infections can often be lethal and extremely difficult to treat using antibiotics.

The goal of the laboratory is to generate a vaccine to prevent these infections from developing in the first place. To do that, we study the mechanisms through which bacteria infect the lung and cause disease, and identify  genes expressed and needed by this bacterium during infection using RNA sequencing. We are now using this knowledge to develop a vaccine that helps the immune system to fight the infection.

These and future studies will also lead to the development of monoclonal antibodies that could be used for the treatment of P. aeruginosa infections where antibiotics are failing.