Guy R. Cornelis

Guy R. Cornelis ( born August 25, 1946 in Uccle, Belgium) is a Belgian microbiologist.

Life

Cornelis studied pharmacy, research on β -lactamases in Oxford (UK) and received his doctorate in 1974 at the University of Louvain in Belgium. He examined antibiotic resistance plasmids in Bristol ( UK) and transposons at the University of Freiburg (Germany) and at the Max Planck Institute in Cologne ( Germany ). After his appointment as a professor at Louvain in 1984, he began to study bacterial pathogenesis. In 1991, he joined the Christian de Duve Institute, Brussels. In 2001 he became Professor of Molecular Microbiology at the Biozentrum, University of Basel. Since his retirement in 2011 Cornelis continues his research at the University of Namur in Belgium.

Work

Guy R. Cornelis deals with the elucidation of complex mechanisms of action of bacterial infectious diseases. Received special recognition for Cornelis and H. Wolf- Watz ( Umea, Sweden) for the discovery of the bacterial type III secretion system ( T3SS ). T3SS is a mechanism by which bacteria produce a cocktail of cytotoxins, called effector proteins in animal, plant or inject insect cells. These effectors disarm or reprogram the host cells by sabotaging their cellular signaling network. The T3SS apparatus, also called Injektisom, is a complex nano- syringe, consisting of more than 25 different proteins. Since 2004, explored Capnocytophaga canimorsus Cornelis, a bacterium in dogs mouth that causes fatal infections in humans.

Awards

Publications (selection )

  • T. Michiels, P. Wattiau, R. Brasseur, JM Ruysschaert, G. Cornelis: secretion of Yop proteins by Yersiniae. In: Infection and immunity. Volume 58, Number 9, September 1990, pp. 2840-2849, ISSN 0019-9567. PMID 2,129,533th PMC 313576 (Free full text ).
  • Sory MP, Cornelis GR: Translocation of a hybrid YopE - adenylate cyclase from Yersinia enterocolitica into HeLa cells. In: Molecular microbiology. Volume 14, Number 3, November 1994, pp. 583-594, ISSN 0950 - 382x. PMID 7,885,236th
  • Wattiau P., B. Bernier, P. Deslee, T. Michiels, Cornelis GR: Individual chaperones required for Yop secretion by Yersinia. In: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. Volume 91, Number 22, October 1994, pp. 10493-10497, ISSN 0027-8424. PMID 7,937,981th PMC 45047 (Free full text ).
  • L. Journet, C. Agrain, P. Broz, Cornelis GR: The needle length of bacterial injectisomes is deterministic mined by a molecular ruler. In: Science ( New York, N. Y. ). Volume 302, Number 5651, December 2003, pp. 1757-1760, ISSN 1095-9203. doi: 10.1126/science.1091422. PMID 14,657,497th
  • CA Mueller, P. Broz, SA Müller, P. Ringler, F. Erne -Brand, I. Sorg, M. Kuhn, A. Engel, Cornelis GR: The V- antigen of Yersinia forms a distinct structure at the tip of injectisome needles. In: Science ( New York, N. Y. ). Volume 310, Number 5748, October 2005, pp. 674-676, ISSN 1095-9203. doi: 10.1126/science.1118476. PMID 16,254,184th
Digital Object Identifier
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