Philippe Langella

I started to work on genetics of lactic acid bacteria (LAB) in 1983. Since 1993, my team has developed new uses of LAB as live delivery vehicles to improve human health. My most-achieved project concerns a new strategy to prevent and to fight against intestinal inflammatory pathologies using such recombinant LAB (recLAB; Science Translational Medicine, 2012).

Since 2004, I’m involved in both commensals and probiotics domains to better understand the mechanisms of these bacteria and to enhance their use in human and animal health. My main goal is to gain a better understanding of the crosstalk between these resident and transiting bacteria and the host in order to unravel the mechanisms of their beneficial effects on human health. I’m more particularly studying anti-inflammatory effects of commensals and probiotics in murine models. In 2008, my laboratory has identified the first anti-inflammatory commensal bacterium based on human clinical data (PNAS, 2008). I have authored 197 peer-reviewed international publications at the interface between microbiology and human health (WoK h-index 45). My laboratory is also leader in the use of recombinant probiotics to deliver molecules of health interest at the mucosal level and I recently patented such novel anti-inflammatory strains. I’m co-inventor of 17 patents in the domain of the use of commensal and probiotic bacteria in health domain. I have participated in numerous national and European research projects and have strong research collaborations with several agro-food and pharmaceutical companies. I’m a referee for many international journals and consulting expert for several agro-food and pharmaceutical companies.