Who is Tâm Mignot ?
Tâm Mignot is a microbiologist, currently serving as the director of the Laboratory of Cell Biology (LCB). As a Research Director (DR-CNRS), Dr. Mignot is a leader in the field of microbiology, focusing on understanding the behavior of bacteria like Myxococcus xanthus.
He won the silver CNRS medal in 2023. His dedication to pushing the boundaries of scientific knowledge has also earned him a place in the prestigious French Academy of Sciences, where he was elected in 2023 to the Section of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Genomics. This recognition was officially ratified in a ceremony on June 4, 2024, at the Institut de France.The Challenge of live bacterial imaging
Tâm’s team faced a key obstacle in their research on bacterial motility: E. coli and Myxococcus xanthus would not adhere to standard glass slides, complicating their ability to study their behavior or perform single-molecule imaging in live microscopy.
Tâm Mignot, Olivier Theodoly, Amandine Desorme, Guillaume Sudre and Laurent David. (ILM Lyon, France)
Chitosan-Coated coverslips for enhanced bacterial studies
Inspired by chitosan’s role in enhancing bacterial movement, they envisioned to develop an upgraded version of chitosan with no bacteriostatic effect and a guaranteed reproducibility between batches. Together with experts in polymer chemistry, they explored and characterized multiple chemical modifications on chitosan materials until they achieved a perfect coating that efficiently immobilizes bacteria without altering their physiology or inhibiting growth.
Pushing boundaries with chitosan and microfluidics
With this breakthrough, the team added a microfluidics system to allow culture medium renewal, and observe the bacteria’s real-time response to antibiotics or any added chemicals. This combination of chitosan and dynamic flowing system offered a solution to better study bacterial behavior in a controlled, precise manner.
Chitozen: Add chemicals, change medium and directly observe live bacteria
This innovation led to the creation of Chitozen, an easy-to-use system combining chitosan-coated coverslips with microfluidics. Chitozen offers researchers a powerful tool for studying live bacterial responses in controlled environments.
Growth and division of E. coli on Chitozen, in LB medium (Amandine Desorme, LCB - CNRS, 2021)
Want to know more ?
If you're curious about the development of Chitozen and the team’s collaborative process, check out their 2019 study in mBio that highlights how chitosan-coated coverslips were used to maintain bacteria on a same focal plane without affecting their physiology, enabling highly accurate and rapid antibiotic susceptibility testing for clinical strains. And click below to discover more about this innovation.
