Pascale Cossart

Biography Cossart was born in the north of France in 1948. She grew up and attended school in Arras. Cossart earned a B.S. and M.S. from Lille University in 1968. She then earned an M.S. in chemistry from Georgetown University in 1971, and her Ph.D. in biochemistry at the Pasteur Institute and the University of Paris in 1977 (University Paris Diderot). She completed her postdoctoral fellowship at the Pasteur Institute.

Works Cossart's research has focused on infection by intracellular bacteria, and in particular the infectious agent Listeria monocytogenes. Cossart's work has shed light on the genetic and biochemical processes that make Listeria so effective and lethal, identifying the bsh gene; regulatory mechanisms such as an RNA thermosensor that control expression of the virulence genes such as bsh; and the ways in which Listeria enters cells and crosses physiological barriers such as the blood–brain barrier, the intestinal barrier, and the placental barrier. The discovery by Cossart's lab of the interaction between L. monocytogenes''' protein, internalin, and its cell receptor, E-cadherin, was the first such study that successfully demonstrated the molecular mechanism that permits a bacterial agent to cross the placental barrier. By comparing the sequences of Listeria drawn from soil and drawn from the human gut, Cossart identified non-coding RNAs that contribute to Listeria's virulence, identified additional RNA repressors, and determined that riboswitches can act both downstream and upstream. Richard Lounsbery Award (1998) Helena Rubenstein / UNESCO Award for Women in Science Leadership (1998) Corresponding member, French Academy of Sciences (1999) Nestle Prize "L’homme et sa nutrition", (2000) Louis Pasteur Gold Medal, Swedish Society of Medicine, (2000) Howard Hughes Medical Institute, International Research Scholar, 2000–2005, 2005–2011, 2012–2017 Member, German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina (2001) Valade Prize, Fondation de France (2003) Margaret Pittman Lecture, National Institutes of Health (2003) Member, American Academy of Microbiology (2004) GlaxoSmithKline International Member of the Year Award (2007) Descartes Prize (2007) René DESCARTES Prize (2008) for collaborative transnational research, Brussels, (2008) ERC Advanced Grant Award (2008–2014, 2015–2019) Foreign member, Royal Society of London (2010) Robert Koch Medal of the Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany (2010) Van Deenen Medal of the Institute of Biomembranes, Utrecht, The Nertherlands (2011) Helmotz International Fellow Award, Berlin, Germany (2013) Balzan Prize (2013) H.P.R. Seeliger Award, Wurzburg, Germany (2013) Foreign Member of the National Academy of Medicine (NAM), U.S. (2014) FEBS/EMBO Women in Science Award (2014) Jürgen Manchot-Guest Professorship 2014, Düsseldorf, Germany, (2014) Doctor honoris causa'' of the University of Birmingham, United Kingdom (2015) Associated member of the Académie Nationale de Pharmacie, Paris (2016) Ernst Jung Gold Medal for Medicine from the Jung Foundation (2017) Prix René et Andrée Duquesne, Paris, France (2018) Heinrich Wieland Prize, Munich, Germany (2018) FEMS Lwoff Award (2019) Honorary Doctorate, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm (2020) Selman A. Waksman Award in Microbiology, NAS (2021), National Academy of Science, Washington, U.S. Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor in 2020 (commander in 2013, officer in 2007) Commander of the Ordre national du Mérite in 2010