Muriel COCAIGN-BOUSQUET

I am a scientist in the “Microbiology and Food Chain” division of the French National Institute for Agricultural, Food and Environmental Research, currently working at the Toulouse Biotechnology Institute as head of the research group BLADE (Bacterial Adaptation Diversity and Engineering).

I am interested in the study of Bacterial Physiology and Metabolism to better understand mechanisms of adaptation of bacteria to their environment and to engineer bacteria for applications in biotechnology.

My major area of study is RNA dynamics in bacteria to better understand genome-wide post-transcriptional regulations, their role in the regulation of gene expression and their potential for engineering bacteria. More recently, I have also initiated studies on bacterial diversity and heterogeneity, working on various bacteria strains alone, in consortia or in interaction with non-equivalent monoclonal subpopulations.

My research concerns predominantly two model bacteria, Lactococcus lactis and Escherichia coli, using a systems biology approach to elucidate the different levels of metabolic regulation and notably genome wide omic regulations. I initiated collaborations with mathematicians to rationalise the use of large-scale genomic data-sets to investigate bacterial physiology. I am currently an associated member of the group Microcosm at INRIA Grenoble to combine computational and experimental approaches.