Biosketch
Emmanuelle Bille is the leader of the Filamentous Phage theme within the Neisseria team. She is a pharmacist and microbiologist (HDR, PhD and PD). She is an Associate Professor (MCU-PH) and an Academic Practitioner in the Microbiology Laboratory at Necker-Enfants malades Hospital.
Alongside her hospital duties, she has conducted fundamental research on Neisseria meningitidis virulence since 2003. She identified a filamentous bacteriophage, designated MDAΦ (Meningococcal Disease Associated), which is associated with invasive diseases caused by N. meningitidis. The presence of the MDA prophage in a strain's genome increases the colonization of meningococci onto monolayers of epithelial cells via the production of viruses. Therefore, MDAΦ appears to increase bacterial colonisation of the mucosa at the site of entry and increase the incidence of disease.