Dr Gaétan Burgio

MSc (Paris XI), MBBS (Paris VII), MD (Paris VII), PhD (Pasteur Institute and MNHN, Paris)
Group Leader - The Burgio Group

Dr Burgio was born in France and completed his education in Paris. He graduated from the Faculty of Medicine Xavier Bichat in Paris in 2002 with a Medical Degree. He worked as a consultant in an emergency department at Paris while he was undertaking his PhD studies at Pasteur Institute, Paris. He completed his PhD in 2008 from Pasteur Institute in France and migrated to Australia to join Professor Simon Foote as a postdoctoral researcher at the Menzies Research Institute (University of Tasmania) from 2008 to 2012, and the Australian School of Advanced Medicine at Macquarie University from 2012 to 2015 investigating the host response to the malaria parasite using large scale ENU mutagenesis in mice. In 2015 he was appointed as a Group Leader at The John Curtin of Medical Research, and Head of the transgenesis core facility at the Australian Phenomics Facility to establish a new research program of the host pathogens interaction on multidrug resistant bacteria and the malaria parasite, using cutting edge technologies such as CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing. His research is supported by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) and the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS) in Australia.

External links:

Gaetan Burgio on Twitter

As Florida voters are asked to weigh in on a GM mosquito field trial, where is (and isn’t) the science of Zika virus control?

 

Research interests

My research group focuses on elucidating the genetic mechanisms of the interaction of the pathogens with the host using avant-garde technologies. Resistance from pathogens to antibiotics or antiparasitic drugs is a growing concern and affects millions patients worldwide every year. There is an urgent need to find novel treatment to improve the care of people as bacteria or parasites are becoming resistant to all existing antibiotics and antiparasitic agents. Novel & innovative strategies are desperately needed for this problem. In the general population, there are individual differences between humans that give some people an advantage in their ability to resist severe disease caused by infections. My group aim to understand why these people are resistant to pathogens using mouse as a model. Using genomic technologies (DNA and RNA sequencing), advanced mouse genetic technologies (ENU mutagenesis in mice, Collaborative Cross in mice) or transgenesis technologies such as CRISPR/Cas9 mediated genome editing in mice or pathogens, we aim to dissect mechanisms  of the host resistance to pathogens (hospital acquired infection as well as malaria) as well as the mechanisms of interaction of the pathogens to the host.

Areas of expertise

  • Genetics
  • Quantitative Genetics (Incl. Disease And Trait Mapping Genetics)
  • Haematology
  • Infectious Diseases
  • Genetics Not Elsewhere Classified
  • Bacteriology
  • Other Biological Sciences
  • Medical Molecular Engineering Of Nucleic Acids And Proteins