Decode Bacterial Immunity: ERC Consolidator Grant for Ana Brochado

Fighting bacterial pathogens with their own weapons

The increase in antibiotic resistance requires new strategies to combat bacterial infections. In her project “BacImmuneDecode – Decoding bacterial immunity to enhance antimicrobial action,” Ana Rita Brochado aims to investigate the regulation and function of bacterial immune defense systems in order to pave the way for novel approaches to combating bacterial infections. Her Consolidator Grant project is funded by the European Research Council (ERC) with a total of two million euros over a period of five years.

Ana Rita Brochado's team recently tested a hundred substances using an automated high-throughput method and made a surprising discovery: antifolate antibiotics activate the bacterial defense system CBASS in the cholera pathogen Vibrio cholerae. CBASS normally triggers the self-destruction of bacteria that have been infected by viruses, known as bacteriophages, in order to protect the remaining bacterial population. The team discovered that the bacterium is damaged by treatment with antifolate antibiotics and, in the absence of phages, by its own immune response – similar to an autoimmune disease. This was a previously unknown mode of action of antifolates, which could now be used to make antibiotics more effective and prevent further resistance.

(Related publication: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41564-023-01556-y and

summary in a 60-second video:  https://youtu.be/q3EErS28oMs)

Recently, more than a hundred additional phage defense systems have been identified in bacteria. Some of them, similar to CBASS from V. cholerae, protect bacteria from phages by being harmful to the bacteria. Such defense systems are primarily encoded on mobile genetic elements and are common in bacteria. However, important aspects of their regulation remain unclear.

"In a large-scale screening, we will investigate hundreds of bioactive molecules that have the potential to regulate the activity of different phage defense systems. We will experimentally map genetic and environmental triggers of the bacterial immune system of E. coli. In the long term, these triggers could be combined with phages to develop new therapeutic approaches against bacterial infections," says Ana Rita Brochado.

Five ERC Consolidator Grants go to Tübingen

A total of five ERC Consolidator Grants will go to Tübingen in 2025. At the University and University Hospital of Tübingen, five scientists have been awarded Consolidator Grants from the European Research Council (ERC) in the current round of funding. These awards come with generous project funding. In this round, the ERC approved 349 of the 3,121 applications submitted for Consolidator Grants across the EU, with a success rate of around 11 percent.

The Tübingen ERC Consolidator Grants:

• Professor Jan Böttcher, Institut für Immunologie und M3 Forschungszentrum

Project: „EICO-CODE“ to investigate how chemical signals in the body can influence the immune system to strengthen the body's own defenses against infections and cancer

• Junior professor Ana Brochado, Interfakultäres Institut für Mikrobiologie und Infektionsmedizin

Project: „BacImmune-Decode“ to decode the bacterial immune system in order to better combat pathogenic bacteria

• Professor Andreas Geiger, Fachbereich Informatik

Project: „CASIDO“ for accelerating scientific progress through artificial intelligence

• Professor Tobias Hauser, Allgemeine Psychiatrie und Psychotherapie

Project: „CiBbI-OCD” for a better understanding and treatment of obsessive-compulsive disorders

• Dr. Madhuri Salker, Department für Frauengesundheit, Universitäts-Frauenklinik

Project: „babyRADAR“ to decipher the fundamentals of reproductive medicine

Consolidator Grants are awarded to experienced scientists in all disciplines, seven to twelve years after completing their doctorates. The associated project funding usually amounts to a total of up to two million euros over a period of five years.

Detailed information on all five funded projects can be found in the University of Tübingen press release:

Go to press release

(Source: Press Release University of Tübingen, 9.12.2025)