Sébastien Rigali began the genetic and physiological study of Streptomyces at the Center for Protein Engineering of the University of Liège in 1997 when writing his end-of-study paper to obtain his bachelor's degree in biological sciences (botany) under the supervision of Dr. Jean Dusart. While still under the supervision of Dr. Dusart, he defended his doctoral thesis on the regulation of catabolic repression in Streptomyces in 2002. He would build on this thesis in a "First Europe" project financed by the Walloon Region which sought to utilize Streptomyces in the recycling of green wastes. During this time, he also began to collaborate closely with Profs. Fritz Titgemeyer (University of Erlangen, Germany) and Gilles van Wezel (University of Leiden, the Netherlands) on projects seeking to understand the mechanisms triggering the development and production of antibiotics in Streptomyces. This research was carried out both at the Center for Protein Engineering (CPE) and during his postdoctoral training in Prof. vanWezel's laboratory. Upon his return to the CPE, Dr. Rigali obtained a one-year mandate as FRS-FNRS scientific collaborator in 2007. This year, he was named qualified FRS-FNRS researcher, and is currently a member of Prof. Bernard Joris's laboratory of genetics and bacterial physiology.

Selection of recent publications

Rigali S., Titgemeyer F., Barends S, Mulder S., Thomae A.W., Hopwood D.A. and van Wezel G.P. Feast or famine: the global regulator DasR links nutrient stress to antibiotic production by Streptomyces. EMBO reports. 2008 Jul;9(7):670-5.

Colson S., van Wezel G.P., Craig M., Noens E.E.E., Nothaft H., Mommaas Mieke A., Titgemeyer F., Joris B., and Rigali S. (2007). The chitobiose-binding protein, DasA, acts as a link between chitin utilization and morphogenesis in Streptomyces coelicolor. Microbiology. 154(Pt 2):373-82.

Hiard S., Marée R, Colson S., Hoskisson P.A., Titgemeyer F., Joris B., van Wezel G.P., Wehenkel L, and Rigali S. (2007). PREDetector: A new tool to identify regulatory elements in bacterial genomes. Biochem. and Biophys. Res. Comm. 357(4):861-4.

Colson S., Stephan J., Hertrich T., Saito A., van Wezel G.P., Titgemeyer F., and Rigali S. (2007). Conserved cis-acting elements upstream of genes composing the chitinolytic system of streptomycetes are DasR responsive elements. J. Mol. Microbiol. Biotechnol. 12(1-2):60-66.

Rigali S., Nothaft H., Noens E.E.E., Schlicht M., Colson S., Muller M., Koerten H.K., Joris B., Hopwood D.A., Titgemeyer F. and van Wezel G.P. (2006). The sugar phosphotransferase system is regulated by the GntR-family regulator DasR and links N-acetylglucosamine metabolism to the control of development. Molecular Microbiology. 61 (5), 1237-1251.

Piette A, Derouaux A, Gerkens P, Noens E E E, Mazzucchelli G, Vion S, Koerten H K, Titgemeyer F, De Pauw E, Leprince P, van Wezel G P, Galleni M, and Rigali S. (2005). From dormant to germinating spores of Streptomyces coelicolor A3(2): new perspectives from the crp null mutant. J. Proteome Res. 4(5):1699-708.