Clinical Microbiology and Mycotoxins

Biography

Dr. Isabelle Oswald is an engineer in Agricultural Sciences who trained as an immunologist at the NIH, Bethesda, USA. She now holds a permanent position of Director of Research at INRA in Toulouse. In her laboratory, developed different techniques to detect pig cytokines (ELISA, qPCR, DNA array..) have been developed. These techniques are currently used to analyze cytokine response during infections, pathological (intoxication) or physiological situations (weaning, feed additives..). Her work focuses on the effects of infections and food contaminants on intestinal and systemic cytokines in both weaned piglets and growing pigs. She is leading the “Immuno mycotoxicology” research team (four permanent scientists, two post-doctoral fellows, two PhD students and four technicians). Her main research interest deals with the toxic effect of mycotoxin in farm animals, with a special attention to the ability of mycotoxin to decrease the immune defence in pigs. She is also involved in defining new strategies to limit these toxic effects as well as on project dealing with the effect of feed additive to stimulate the intestinal immune response. Dr. Isabelle P. Oswald has more than 60 peer-reviewed international publications. She is member of the editorial board of "Veterinary Immunology and Immunopathology", "The open Veterinary Journal" and "Journal of Animal Sciences". She is referee for papers submitted to international journals and for grants submitted to French and foreign organizations (EC, UK, South Africa, Canada…). She recently edited a book entitled Mycotoxins and farm animals. Dr. I Oswald has been or is currently involved in several European funded projects.

Research Interest

Her main research interest deals with the toxic effect of mycotoxin in farm animals, with a special attention to the ability of mycotoxin to decrease the immune defence in pigs. She is also involved in defining new strategies to limit these toxic effects as well as on project dealing with the effect of feed additive to stimulate the intestinal immune response.