IÑIGO LASA UZCUDUN
Catedrático Universidad
- Departamento: CIENCIAS DE LA SALUD
- Área de conocimiento: Microbiología
- e-mail: ilasa
unavarra.es
- Teléfono: (+34) 848 42 21 17 (ext. )
NAVARRABIOMED
Education and past positions
- 1983-1988 B.Sc. Biology. University of Navarra. Spain
- 1992 PhD thesis in Science, Universidad Autonoma de Madrid.
- 1995-1997 EU Postdoctoral fellow.Unité des interactions Bacteries-Celules. Institut Pasteur. France.
- 1998 – 2008 Assistant Professor of Microbiology. Universidad Pública de Navarra
- 2008-present Professor of Microbiology. Universidad Pública de Navarra.
- 2010-2013 Director of Biotechnology center, Mutilva, Spain.
- 2015-2022 Director of Navarrabiomed, Center of Biomedical Research, Pamplona. Spain
- 2009-2010 Visiting scientist. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. USA
- 2013-2018 Head of the Management Board (MB) of the Biotechnology grant program of the Spanish Ministry
- 2022- Associated Editor NPJ Biofilms and Microbiome
- 2020- Associated Editor "Biofilms" journal
2001 “Ortiz de Landazuri” award. Gobierno de Navarra, Spain
2005 “Jaime Ferran” award. Sociedad Española de Microbiología. Cáceres. Spain
2006 Research award on Basic Science of the Public University of Navarra. Spain
2019 Miembro electo de la Academia Europea de Microbiologia
Five selected publications (Members of the team are underlined)
- Taglialegna A, Navarro S, Ventura S, Garnett JA, Matthews S, Penadés JR, Lasa I*,Valle J*. 2016. Staphylococcal Bap Proteins Build Amyloid Scaffold Biofilm Matrices in Response to Environmental Signals. PLoS Pathog 12:e1005711.
- Echeverz M, García B, Sabalza A, Valle J, Gabaldón T, Solano C, Lasa I. (2017). Lack of the PGA exopolysaccharide in Salmonellaas an adaptive trait for survival in the host. PLoS Genetics 13:e1006816.
- Villanueva M, García B, Valle J, Ruiz de los Mozos I., Solano C, Marti M., Penades J.R., Toledo-Arana A., Lasa I.(2018). Sensory deprivation in Staphylococcus aureus. Nature Communications 9:523.
- Sáenz-Lahoya, S. .....Lasa I. Noncontiguous operon is a genetic organization for coordinating bacterial gene expression. Proc National Acad Sci 116, 201812746 (2019).
- Trobos, M. ...... Lasa I. Genomics of Staphylococcus aureus and Staphylococcus epidermidis from Periprosthetic Joint Infections and Correlation to Clinical Outcome. Microbiol Spectr e02181-21 (2022) doi:10.1128/spectrum.02181-21.
Bibliometrics figures (h index citations) ORCID: 0000-0002-6625-9221, Research ID: F-2947-2011
· Total articles in publication list: >125
· Sum of the times cited: > 8000
· h-index: 54 (scopus), 50 (web of science)
· Last updated: 14/12/2022
Our laboratory investigates fundamental mechanisms of regulation of bacterial biofilm development with a focus on human pathogens. We are interested in understanding how signal transduction systems control the transition between planktonic and sessile lifestyles. We also study the composition of biofilm matrix and the function of these compounds during infection. In particular, we do research on basic principles of RNA overlapping transcription and its role in gene expression, on mechanisms of exopolysaccharide synthesis regulation and on how surface proteins of the biofilm matrix mediated intercellular adhesion and interactions with the host cells. Very recently, we have deconstructed the two-component signal transduction system of Staphylococcus aureus. In this study, we have generated fifteen S. aureusstrains, each containing just a single TCS, as well as a mutant lacking all 15 non-essential TCS. This powerful and unique genetic resource will allow us to unambiguously determine the contribution that each individual TCS to the regulation of peptidoglycan biosynthesis and antibiotic resistance.