Benoît Chassaing

Website: https://www.chassainglab.com/
ORCID: 0000-0002-4285-769X
Twitter: @BenoitChassaing

Our central research interest is to determine the role played by the microbiota in health and disease, with a focus on chronic inflammatory diseases.

Axis 1: Environmental factors-mediated modulation of the intestinal microbiota.

We are studying various environmental factors holding the ability to impact the intestinal microbiota. We have previously reported that dietary emulsifiers, highly used by the food industry, are able to detrimentally alter the intestinal microbiota, characterized by an increased ability to penetrate the normally protective mucus layer and an increase pro-inflammatory potential. We reported that the consumption of emulsifying agent is sufficient to induce intestinal inflammation that will manifest as chronic colitis in genetically susceptible host. Moreover, in unimpaired host, such food additives are inducing the development of metabolic syndrome characterized by diabetes and an increase in body weight, as well as by an increased susceptibility to colonic carcinogenesis. We are currently working on the mechanisms beyond these observations, especially the identification and characterization of microbiota members driving emulsifier susceptibility.

Axis 2: Immunity / microbiota relationship in health and disease

We have studied for many years how the host is controlling the intestinal microbiota in order to keep it under control and at a proper/safe distance from the intestinal mucosa. We have for example demonstrated that the flagellin receptor TLR5 is playing a central role in keeping the intestinal microbiota under control. Animals lacking the TLR5 receptor develop intestinal inflammation that can manifest with the development of chronic colitis or metabolic syndrome. In the liver, we have demonstrated that TLR5 is playing an important protective role during western-style diet consumption. We are pursuing these efforts in order to better understand immune system / microbiota relationship within the gastrointestinal tract.

Axis 3: Modulation of the intestinal microbiota using pre- and pro-biotics approaches

While our research is mainly focusing on detrimental impacts of the microbiota, our expertise in this field of research, our data-set of identified detrimental bacteria and metabolites, as well as the numerous animal models available in the laboratory lead us to work on the development of tools aiming to beneficially alter the intestinal microbiota.

Top 5 publications

1- Shi Z, Zou J, Zhang Z, Noriega J, Zhang B, Plemper R, Zhao C, Bitinger K, Mattei L, Dermody T, Chassaing B, Gewirtz AT. Segmented filamentous bacteria prevent and cures rotavirus infection. Cell, 2019 179(3):644-658.e13.

2- Viennois E, Bretin A, Dubé PE, Maue AC, Barnich N, Gewirtz AT, Chassaing B. Dietary emulsifiers directly impact adherent-invasive E. coli gene expression to drive chronic intestinal inflammation. Cell reports, 2020;33(1):108229.

3- Naimi S, Viennois E, Gewirtz AT, Chassaing B. Direct impact of commonly used dietary emulsifiers on human gut microbiota. Microbiome, 2021;9(1):66.

4- Delaroque C, Chervy M, Chassaing B. Social stress induces metabolic deregulations and intestinal inflammation in a microbiota dependent manner. Gut Microbes, 2021; 13(1): 2000275.

5- Chassaing B, Compher C, Bonhomme B, Liu Q, Walters W, Nessel L, Gershuni V, Chau L, Ni J, Bewtra M, Albenberg L, Bretin A, McKeever W, Ley RE, Patterson A, Wu G, Gewirtz AT, Lewis J. Randomized controlled-feeding study of dietary emulsifier carboxymethylcellulose reveals detrimental impacts on the gut microbiota and metabolome. Gastroenterology 2022; 162(3):743-756

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