Francis Mégraud

Francis Mégraud is a French physician and microbiologist known for his research on gastric diseases and particularly infections caused by Helicobacter pylori. He currently holds the position of Emeritus Professor of Microbiology at the University of Bordeaux and is a member of INSERM Unit 1312 Bordeaux Institute of Oncology (BRIC).

Early life Mégraud was born in 1949 in the Charente countryside (Saintonge) of France. He obtained a diploma in pharmacy in 1972 and a Doctor of Medicine degree in 1980 from the University of Bordeaux II. He later specialized in bacteriology, immunology, and epidemiology, receiving training at the Pasteur Institute in Paris and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) in Atlanta, Georgia. He also completed a postdoctoral position in cell biology at the Coriell Institute for Medical Research in New Jersey.

Career and research Mégraud held the position of Assistant Hospitalo - Universitaire (AHU) in 1978, became a Maître de Conférences Hospitalo-Universitaire - Praticien Hospitalier (MCU-PH) in 1982 and was appointed Professor in 1990. He first led the bacteriology laboratory at the Children's Hospital in Bordeaux and the pediatric bacteriology section at Pellegrin Hospital. From 2006 to 2017, he served as Head of the Bacteriology Department at the University Hospital of Bordeaux.

His research initially focused on Campylobacter infections and in the 1980s he was involved in international collaborations with developing countries: Algeria, Burkina Faso and Vietnam and obtained important contracts from the WHO, the EU and the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs which allowed the development of hospital laboratories and local projects, hence improving the conditions of the patients. Later he shifted to Helicobacter pylori, which was discovered in 1982 and thereafter was identified as a cause of peptic ulcers and gastric cancer. He established the French National Reference Center for H. pylori in Bordeaux and founded an INSERM research unit dedicated to its study.

In 1987, Mégraud was co-founder of the European Helicobacter and Microbiota Study Group (EHMSG), a collaborative effort among European researchers to study Helicobacter pylori, and served as its General Secretary for several years. He coordinated a European research project on H. pylori in the 1990s, was involved in the development of the Maastricht consensus reports, published in six editions since 1995. of as well as in of the H. pylori European Registry (HpEuReg) and currently participates in European Union-sponsored initiatives aimed at identifying optimal strategies for H. pylori eradication to help prevent gastric cancer. As part of these efforts, he organized two international congresses on H. pylori in Bordeaux, in 1988 and 2017. He was also involved in the founding of the French Group for the Study of Helicobacter (GEFH), which remains active. He had an important international activity, being invited to give lectures in 80 different countries and receiving trainees from 36 different countries. He published close to 600 peer reviewed articles and has an H index of 91 (May 2025).

His research has contributed significantly to the understanding of antimicrobial resistance in H. pylori, and he is among the most cited researchers in this field.

Mégraud has been an expert for the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC). He has been active in organizations such as the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) and United European Gastroenterology (UEG). In 2022, he was elected to the Academia Europaea in the Life Sciences section.