CIR Seminar: Dr Javier Pizarro-Cerda

"Evolution of the plague bacillus, a pandemic pathogen that shaped human history"

Speaker: Dr Javier Pizarro-Cerda, Pasteur Institute, Paris

Host: Jose Vazquez-Boland

Attendance is compulsory at our seminars for CIR MSc and PhD students

Javier Pizarro-Cerda obtained B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees from the University of Costa Rica while working in the laboratory of Edgardo Moreno, studying the adaptations of the outer membrane of the Gram-negative pathogen Brucella abortus to cationic peptides. He then obtained a D.E.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Aix-Marseilles while working in the laboratory of Jean-Pierre Gorvel, identifying the intracellular trafficking of Brucella abortus in epithelial cells. Subsequently, he joined the laboratory of Pascale Cossart at the Pasteur Institute in Paris to investigate signaling cascades triggered by the Gram-positive pathogen Listeria monocytogenes during invasion of host mammalian cells. In 2002 Javier Pizarro-Cerda joined the Pasteur Institute as a permanent researcher and obtained his first grant from the French Ministry of Research. Since, he has been involved in local (Pasteur Institute Transversal Programs), national (French National Agency for Research, Defense Innovation Agency) and international (ERANET, Systems X, National Institutes of Health) research initiatives, investigating the adaptations of bacterial pathogens to intracellular life. He has been actively involved in teaching and has participated in practical and theoretical courses in France, Argentina, Costa Rica, Greece and China. During his career, Javier Pizarro-Cerda has developed his research as invited investigator in different international laboratories including the Center for Microscopy & Microanalysis (Queensland University, Australia), the Weizmann Institute (Rehovot, Israel), the University of Texas-Southwestern Medical Center (Dallas, USA), the Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology (Berlin, Germany) and the Biozentrum (Basel, Switzerland). In 1998, Javier Pizarro-Cerda obtains the Costa Rican National Award for Science ‘Clodomiro Picado-Twight’, in 2012 he becomes member of the Costa Rican Academy of Sciences and in 2015 he receives the High Chamber Medal from the French Senate for his contribution fostering interactions between France and Latin America. In 2016, Javier Pizarro-Cerda becomes head of the ‘Systems Biology of Bacterial Infections’ Group and is promoted as Research Director at the Pasteur Institute. In 2017 he received the ‘Canetti Prize’ from the Pasteur Institute Scientific Council for his global contributions to the field of infectious diseases and became Head of the Yersinia Research Unit as well as Director of the World Health Organization (WHO) Collaborating Reference and Research Centre for Yersinia.  In 2018 he became a member of the WHO International Roster of Experts (Plague Panel) and in 2019 Javier Pizarro-Cerda was admitted as member of the Academia Europaea. In 2022 Javier Pizarro-Cerda became Deputy Director of the National Reference Laboratory ‘Plague and Other Yersinioses’.