Dr Tresse
Dr Tresse is a scientist at INRA, based at "ONIRIS Nantes-Atlantic National College of Veterinary Medicine, Food Science and Engineering", in France. Her research interests are in the molecular mechanisms of adaptation of Campylobacter. Her research team's web site can be found at:
www.angers-nantes.inra.fr/
She was interested in our technology in 2008 to compare the adhesion capability of a large panel of C. jejuni and C. coli strains from various origins.
Using our BioFilm Ring Test (R) technology, she found that among the 46 test strains, C. jejuni and C. coli displayed different adhesion capabilities ranging from no adhesion to strong adhesion. However, no strain of C. coli was strongly adherent and C. coli adhered statistically less to inert surface than C. jejuni. In addition, strains isolated from animals or carcasses were less adherent than strains isolated from food-processing and clinical cases.
These observations suggest that food environment and human body could have selected strains with higher adhesion. Adhesion capability of strains could explain part of cross-or re-contaminated food products by Campylobacter. This property could confer a mode of survival for Campylobacter in the food chain.
These results attracted strong interest from the scientific community and Dr Tresse was invited to perform an oral communication at the 15th International Workshop on Campylobacter, Helicobacter, and Related Organisms (CHRO2009), held September 2nd-5th, 2009, in Niigata, Japan (http://chro2009.jp/).
The results have also been published in Journal of Applied Microbiology (2009).