rousset lab

Like other organisms, bacteria are constantly exposed to viral infection. Bacterial viruses, called phages, are the most abundant biological entities on our planet. Facing this threat, bacteria evolved defense systems that form natural barriers to phage infection, together defining bacterial immunity. In turn, phages found multiple ways to evade bacterial immunity, leading to an evolutionary arms race that drives the diversification of the molecular weapons employed on both sides of the conflict.

At CIRI, our team investigates how these enigmatic defense systems and evasion strategies function during viral infection, and how they can help us decode the immune system of other living organisms.