Capitalisation des connaissances dans le cadre d'un transfert industriel

National audienceCet article présente le cas de l'utilisation d'une méthode de gestion des connaissances dans le cadre du transfert industriel d'un produit de la R&D. La démarche s'appuie sur la mise en contexte par modélisation de l'activité, l'identification des données par modélisation conceptuelle et le recueil de l'expertise par adaptation d'un formalisme de tâches. Cet article expose les réalisations qui ont jalonné l'action et les difficultés rencontrées. La principale de ces difficultés est due à la forte évolutivité du système, du contexte et de l'expertise associée. Cette évolutivité est due à la nécessaire poursuite de l'effort de R&D, en parallèle aux actions de transfert et d'industrialisation. Face à ce type de problématique, les méthodes de gestion des connaissances, qu'elles relèvent de la systémique, du génie logiciel ou du génie cognitif sont encore rares à intégrer les aspects ayant trait à l'évolution et au temps et ce thème constitue un axe d'étude prometteur. Cette expérience nous conduit aussi à replacer la problématique du transfert de connaissances au coeur des questions de management et d'organisation

"Live” Prussian blue fading by time-resolved X-ray absorption spectroscopy

Prussian blue (PB) is an artists' pigment that has been frequently used in many artworks but poses several problems of conservation because of its fading under light and anoxia treatment. PB fading is due to the reduction of iron(III) into iron(II) and depends a lot on the object investigated. Due to the complexity of the structure, the precise physico-chemical mechanisms behind the redox process remain obscure. In this paper, we present a procedure to investigate light- and anoxia-induced fading of PB-paper samples by means of time resolved X-ray absorption spectroscopy performed at the Fe K-edge. A system composed of a visible light source and a flux-controlled environmental cell allowed light, gas and humidity to be modified in situ. The synchrotron X-ray beam was evidenced to induce a reduction of PB and to play a major role in the kinetics. The analysis of the PB fading kinetics of a sample submitted to various gas and light environments showed that both synchrotron beam and anoxia were influencing PB reduction in a correlated way. In comparison, light was found to play a minor role. Finally, we have demonstrated that the type of paper substrate could influence significantly the kinetics of reduction. Several hypotheses to explain the correlation between PB reduction mechanism and substrate are presente

Innovative solutions to sticky situations: Antiadhesive strategies for treating bacterial infections

ABSTRACT Bacterial adherence to host tissue is an essential process in pathogenesis, necessary for invasion and colonization and often required for the efficient delivery of toxins and other bacterial effectors. As existing treatment options for common bacterial infections dwindle, we find ourselves rapidly approaching a tipping point in our confrontation with antibiotic-resistant strains and in desperate need of new treatment options. Bacterial strains defective in adherence are typically avirulent and unable to cause infection in animal models. The importance of this initial binding event in the pathogenic cascade highlights its potential as a novel therapeutic target. This article seeks to highlight a variety of strategies being employed to treat and prevent infection by targeting the mechanisms of bacterial adhesion. Advancements in this area include the development of novel antivirulence therapies using small molecules, vaccines, and peptides to target a variety of bacterial infections. These therapies target bacterial adhesion through a number of mechanisms, including inhibition of pathogen receptor biogenesis, competition-based strategies with receptor and adhesin analogs, and the inhibition of binding through neutralizing antibodies. While this article is not an exhaustive description of every advancement in the field, we hope it will highlight several promising examples of the therapeutic potential of antiadhesive strategies.</jats:p

A new strain collection for improved expression of outer membrane proteins

Almost all integral membrane proteins found in the outer membranes of Gram-negative bacteria belong to the transmembrane β-barrel family. These proteins are not only important for nutrient uptake and homeostasis, but are also involved in such processes as adhesion, protein secretion, biofilm formation, and virulence. As surface exposed molecules, outer membrane β-barrel proteins are also potential drug and vaccine targets. High production levels of heterologously expressed proteins are desirable for biochemical and especially structural studies, but over-expression and subsequent purification of membrane proteins, including outer membrane proteins, can be challenging. Here, we present a set of deletion mutants derived from E. coli BL21(DE3) designed for the over-expression of recombinant outer membrane proteins. These strains harbor deletions of four genes encoding abundant β-barrel proteins in the outer membrane (OmpA, OmpC, OmpF, and LamB), both single and in all combinations of double, triple, and quadruple knock-outs. The sequences encoding these outer membrane proteins were deleted completely, leaving only a minimal scar sequence, thus preventing the possibility of genetic reversion. Expression tests in the quadruple mutant strain with four test proteins, including a small outer membrane β-barrel protein and variants thereof as well as two virulence-related autotransporters, showed significantly improved expression and better quality of the produced proteins over the parent strain. Differences in growth behavior and aggregation in the presence of high salt were observed, but these phenomena did not negatively influence the expression in the quadruple mutant strain when handled as we recommend. The strains produced in this study can be used for outer membrane protein production and purification, but are also uniquely useful for labeling experiments for biophysical measurements in the native membrane environment

Comparative analyses of transport proteins encoded within the genomes of Leptospira species

Select species of the bacterial genus Leptospira are causative agents of leptospirosis, an emerging global zoonosis affecting nearly one million people worldwide annually. We examined two Leptospira pathogens, L. interrogans serovar Lai str. 56601 and L. borgpetersenii serovar Hardjo-bovis str. L550, as well as the free-living leptospiral saprophyte, L. biflexa serovar Patoc str. ‘Patoc 1 (Ames)’. The transport proteins of these leptospires were identified and compared using bioinformatics to gain an appreciation for which proteins may be related to pathogenesis and saprophytism. L. biflexa possesses a disproportionately high number of secondary carriers for metabolite uptake and environmental adaptability as well as an increased number of inorganic cation transporters providing ionic homeostasis and effective osmoregulation in a rapidly changing environment. L. interrogans and L. borgpetersenii possess far fewer transporters, but those that they all have are remarkably similar, with near-equivalent representation in most transporter families. These two Leptospira pathogens also possess intact sphingomyelinases, holins, and virulence-related outer membrane porins. These virulence-related factors, in conjunction with decreased transporter substrate versatility, indicate that pathogenicity arose in Leptospira correlating to progressively narrowing ecological niches and the emergence of a limited set of proteins responsible for host invasion. The variability of host tropism and mortality rates by infectious leptospires suggests that small differences in individual sets of proteins play important physiological and pathological roles

Comparative genomic analyses of transport proteins encoded within the genomes of Leptospira species

Select species of the bacterial genus Leptospira are causative agents of leptospirosis, an emerging global zoonosis affecting nearly one million people worldwide annually. We examined two Leptospira pathogens, L. interrogans serovar Lai str. 56601 and L. borgpetersenii serovar Hardjo-bovis str. L550, as well as the free-living leptospiral saprophyte, L. biflexa serovar Patoc str. ‘Patoc 1 (Ames)’. The transport proteins of these leptospires were identified and compared using bioinformatics to gain an appreciation for which proteins may be related to pathogenesis and saprophytism. L. biflexa possesses a disproportionately high number of secondary carriers for metabolite uptake and environmental adaptability as well as an increased number of inorganic cation transporters providing ionic homeostasis and effective osmoregulation in a rapidly changing environment. L. interrogans and L. borgpetersenii possess far fewer transporters, but those that they have are remarkably similar, with near-equivalent representation in most transporter families. These two Leptospira pathogens also possess intact sphingomyelinases, holins, and virulence-related outer membrane porins. These virulence-related factors, in conjunction with decreased transporter substrate versatility, indicate that pathogenicity was accompanied by progressively narrowing ecological niches and the emergence of a limited set of proteins responsible for host invasion. The variability of host tropism and mortality rates by infectious leptospires suggests that small differences in individual sets of proteins play important physiological and pathological roles

A complex interplay between the extracellular matrix and the innate immune response to microbial pathogens

The role of the host extracellular matrix (ECM) in infection tends to be neglected. However, the complex interactions between invading pathogens, host tissues and immune cells occur in the context of the ECM. On the pathogen side, a variety of surface and secreted molecules, including microbial surface components recognizing adhesive matrix molecules and tissue‐degrading enzymes, are employed that interact with different ECM proteins to effectively establish an infection at specific sites. Microbial pathogens can also hijack or misuse host proteolytic systems to modify the ECM, evade immune responses or process biologically active molecules such as cell surface receptors and cytokines that direct cell behaviour and immune defence. On the host side, the ECM composition and three‐dimensional ultrastructure undergo significant modifications, which have a profound impact on the specific signals that the ECM conveys to immune cells at the forefront of infection. Unexpectedly, activated immune cells participate in the remodelling of the local ECM by synthesizing ECM glycoproteins, proteoglycans and collagen molecules. The close interplay between the ECM and the innate immune response to microbial pathogens ultimately affects the outcome of infection. This review explores and discusses recent data that implicate an active role for the ECM in the immune response to infection, encompassing antimicrobial activities, microbial recognition, macrophage activation, phagocytosis, leucocyte population balance, and transcriptional and post‐transcriptional regulation of inflammatory networks, and may foster novel antimicrobial approaches