Romain Guérillot
Romain Guérillot is a Research Fellow in the Howden and Stinear laboratories at the Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, University of Melbourne. He studies the intersection of bacterial evolution and infectious diseases. Following his PhD at the Pasteur Institute, his research has centered on investigating the adaptation of bacterial pathogens during infection. Beyond his academic research, he previously served as Head of Bioinformatics and Data Science at the biotechnology company DEINOVE. In this role, he led the data integration for a high-throughput drug discovery platform, combining genome mining, metagenomics, metabolomics, and bioactivity screening to identify and prioritise novel antimicrobial leads.
His research focuses on how pathogens such as Staphylococcus aureus survive antibiotics and host immune pressures. He integrates experimental microbiology and infection models with population-level functional genomics. He applies large-scale genomic analyses, multi-omics, and high-throughput phenotyping to identify rapid molecular changes that allow bacteria to adapt and persist across different host niches.
A central theme of his work is phenotypic heterogeneity driven by reversible genetic mechanisms. He characterises how frequent genetic switches, from large-scale chromosomal rearrangements to phase-variable simple sequence repeats, enable bacterial populations to rapidly toggle critical traits such as intracellular persistence, antibiotic resistance, and immune evasion. By decoding these mechanisms, his research aims to provide a high-resolution view of microbial adaptation during infection. His goal is to decode the genetic mechanisms underlying rapid bacterial adaptation, and to use this knowledge to develop better therapeutic strategies and diagnostics.
Abstracts this author is presenting: