rousset lab

Like other organisms, bacteria are exposed to viral infection. Bacterial viruses, called phages, are the most abundant biological entities on our planet: they kill a third of marine bacteria daily and are key components of the human microbiome. Facing viral threat, bacteria have evolved multiple lines of defense that form natural barriers to phage infection, together defining bacterial immunity. At CIRI, we investigate how these enigmatic defense systems operate and how they can help us decode the immune system of other living organisms.