Objective "Capnocytophaga canimorsus are Gram-negative bacteria from the normal oral flora of dogs, which cause rare but severe infections in humans that have been bitten or simply licked. The most common syndrome is fulminant septicemia with peripheral gangrene. Mortality reaches 40 % in spite of antibiotherapy and amputations. My laboratory pioneered recently the study of this new pathogen. We engineered genetic tools, sequenced and annotated the genome and determined the surface proteome of a strain isolated from a fatal infection. This showed that C. canimorsus have abundant surface-exposed lipoproteins forming a new kind of feeding complexes, some of them specialized in deglycosylating glycoproteins from the host. This property allows C. canimorsus to feed by grazing oligosaccharides at the surface of human cells. The present research program aims at characterizing these deglycosylating complexes, unravelling their role in neutralizing the innate immunity and promoting growth within the host and finally characterizing their assembly at the bacterial surface. Genomic comparisons will help defining which of these many complexes play a critical role in human pathogenesis. Besides this, the lipopolysaccharide structure will be determined and genetically manipulated to understand its low endotoxicity and small anti-inflammatory effectors present in the culture supernatant of C. canimorsus will be identified. Growth in human blood of wild type and mutant strains will be monitored by isothermal microcalorimetry in the hope of developing a surrogate of animal model. Such a ""virulence"" model would allow to address the question whether all dog's strains are equally dangerous for humans. It would also open an avenue for testing differences in individual human susceptibility. All this knowledge will give new insights in this emerging pathogen and might lead to prevention of the disease caused by C. canimorsus" Fields of science natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiochemistrybiomoleculesproteinsproteomicssocial sciencessociologydemographymortalitynatural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologybacteriologyagricultural sciencesanimal and dairy sciencedomestic animalsnatural sciencesbiological sciencesgeneticsgenomes Programme(s) FP7-IDEAS-ERC - Specific programme: "Ideas" implementing the Seventh Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities (2007 to 2013) Topic(s) ERC-AG-LS6 - ERC Advanced Grant - Immunity and infection Call for proposal ERC-2011-ADG_20110310 See other projects for this call Funding Scheme ERC-AG - ERC Advanced Grant Host institution UNIVERSITE DE NAMUR ASBL EU contribution € 1 473 338,00 Address RUE DE BRUXELLES 61 5000 Namur Belgium See on map Region Région wallonne Prov. Namur Arr. Namur Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Principal investigator Guy Richard Cornelis (Prof.) Administrative Contact Christelle Saout (Dr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data Beneficiaries (1) Sort alphabetically Sort by EU Contribution Expand all Collapse all UNIVERSITE DE NAMUR ASBL Belgium EU contribution € 1 473 338,00 Address RUE DE BRUXELLES 61 5000 Namur See on map Region Région wallonne Prov. Namur Arr. Namur Activity type Higher or Secondary Education Establishments Principal investigator Guy Richard Cornelis (Prof.) Administrative Contact Christelle Saout (Dr.) Links Contact the organisation Opens in new window Website Opens in new window Total cost No data