Investigating the role of the microbiome and the intestinal mucosa in colorectal cancer.
Vicky obtained her Ph.D. in Microbiology in 2016 from the French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food and Environment in Nantes, France. During her Ph.D. thesis within the Food Safety and Microbiology research team (SECALIM), she investigated the oxidative stress response of Campylobacter jejuni to better understand the behavior of this foodborne pathogen, with a focus on biofilm lifestyle.
After her PhD, Vicky joined Oleg Alexeyev lab at Umeå University as a Postdoctoral Researcher. She characterized Propionibacterium acnes biofilms and their involvement in the physiopathology of acne vulgaris. During this time, she was also a member of the startup Vakona at Umeå Biotech Incubator as her research work is related to the development of an antibiotic-free treatment against acne. In 2022, she was employed as a project manager at Umea Biotech Incubator to help an inventor within Life Science to move his project forward and verify his business idea.
In September 2022, Vicky joined a translational research project between Björn Schröder lab and Sun Nyunt Wai Lab in the Department of Molecular Biology as well as Richard Palmqvist lab in the Department of Medical Biosciences. In her current project, Vicky is investigating the role of the microbiome and the intestinal mucosa in colorectal cancer. She is focusing on a commensal anaerobic pathogen, Parvimonas micra, which has recently been identified in higher abundance in colorectal cancer patients and is associated with tumorigenesis and decreased survival of patients.