Olivier Jousson

Background

About Olivier Jousson

My initial training (MSc. and PhD) was on parasitology, marine biology, and molecular ecology at the Oceanological Center of Marseille and University of Geneva. I studied ecosystem circulation and microevolutionary mechanisms of marine fish parasites (flatworms). I then moved to the biomedical field as research associate at the University Hospital Lausanne working on a FNRS project aimed at the genomic identification and functional characterization of secreted proteases from human pathogenic fungi (dermatophytes). I successively obtained a “Rientro dei cervelli” grant from Italian Ministry of Education and Research, and transferred to the Dept. of Animal Pathology at the University of Pisa, working on the characterization of virulence or resistance traits in parasitic protozoa and pathogenic bacteria in the veterinary field.I had then the opportunity to move to the University of Trento in 2007, first as associate professor, and then as full professor, to contribute to the establishment of a new research center (Centre for Integrative Biology-CIBIO), and of new programs (BSc, MSc, PhD) in Biotechnology/Biomolecular Sciences. My research group at CIBIO (Microbial Genomics) is interested in the study of bacterial genomes, including identification and functional characterization of bacterial virulence factors, development of molecular typing systems for bacterial pathogens and microbial communities, and population biology of pathogenic bacteria. I’m currently Director of the Centre for Medical Sciences (CISMed) at the University of Trento and vice-director of the Advanced Molecular Diagnostics (DMA) Laboratory at CISMed.