Head of Team

Ruben C. HARTKOORN

Research Director (INSERM)

Contact

 

 

 

The focus of the Chemical Biology of Antibiotics (CBA) research team, headed by Dr. R. Hartkoorn, is to discover novel bioactive molecules and develop them towards clinical use to help fight against drug resistant bacterial infections. The two overriding research themes of the CBA team are the discovery and development of 1) novel antibiotic molecules, and 2) molecules that help overcome both innate and adaptive antibiotic resistance of the main WHO classed priority pathogens, namely: Mycobacterium tuberculosis and nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM), Escherichia coli,Klebsiella pneumoniae, Acinetobacter baumannii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.

Dr. Hartkoorn obtained a PhD in Pharmacology & Therapeutics (University of Liverpool, UK), and has been a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Liverpool, UK (advisor Prof David Back & Saye Khoo), the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne, CH (EPFL, advisor Prof Stewart Cole), and at the University of Geneva (advisor Prof. Dominique Soldati-Favre).
Since 2015 Dr Hartkoorn has become a permeant employee of the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) and started the CBA research team supported through the ATIP-Avenir young researcher program. The CBA team has since developed many innovative research programs tackling antibiotic drug development, programs supported by the ERC (consolidator grant 2019), ATIP-Avenir, ANR (French-German collaborative program 2019), FRM, CPER-CTRL and the SMART-lab.