Mario Jacques
After completing his doctoral thesis in microbiology at the Université de Montréal, Dr. Mario Jacques did his post-doctoral training at the University of Calgary with Dr. J.W. Costerton, a pionner in biofilm research. He then joined the Department of Pathology and Microbiology of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine in 1985. He is currently Professor in this Department. He was Director of the Research Group on Infectious Diseases of Swine (1998-2005) and also Program Leader of the Canadian Research Network on Bacterial Pathogens of Swine (2000-2006). More recently, he was Associate Dean – Research and Graduate Studies at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine (2005-2009). The long-term objective of his research program is to gain a better understanding of the virulence factors involved in the colonization of the host respiratory tract by Gram-negative bacterial pathogens. He employs Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae, the agent of porcine pleuropneumonia responsible for economic losses in the swine industry worldwide, as a model pathogen. His team has focussed on the role of lipopolysaccharide in colonization as well as initiated microarray experiments to identify A. pleuropneumoniae genes expressed in vitro during biofilm formation and in vivo during infection. He has published more than 150 scientific papers and gave more than 40 seminars as invited speaker. He received the Fisher Award from the Canadian Society of Microbiologists and the Pfizer Research Award for his outstanding contributions in animal health.
Abstracts this author is presenting: