“EMBO and the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS) announce Pascale Cossart, a world renowned bacteriologist and Professor at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France, as the winner of the 2014 FEBS | EMBO Women in Science Award.

Professor Cossart receives the award for her outstanding contributions to the study of how bacteria infect human and other cells, her active role in encouraging cooperation between different disciplines in the life sciences, and her support and mentoring of young scientists.

The FEBS | EMBO Women in Science Award recognizes the outstanding achievements of a female researcher in molecular biology over the previous five years. Winners of the award are role models who inspire future generations of women in science.

Cossart has studied in detail how the infectious bacterium Listeria monocytogenes, a deadly food-borne pathogen, infects cells and leads to disease (for example, encephalitis, bacteremia, and gastroenteritis). Cossart and colleagues were the first to work out how Listeria monocytogenes enters and takes over cells that it infects. Her work has helped to build up a comprehensive picture of the genetic and biochemical processes that make this organism so effective and lethal.

Pascale Cossart studied chemistry at the Université Lille and completed a Master of Science degree in Chemistry at Georgetown University in the United States in 1971. She obtained her PhD in biochemistry from the University of Paris in 1977 (University Paris Diderot) and pursued a postdoctoral fellowship at the Institut Pasteur.

Prof.Cossart is currently Professor and Head of the Unité des Interactions Bactéries Cellules at the Institut Pasteur.”

She will be speaking in the Women in Science Plenary lecture on 2 September at the FEBS EMBO 2014 anniversary conference in Paris.