title: A fortunate journey on uneven grounds.
abstract: I was surprised to be invited to write a prefatory chapter for the Annual Review of Microbiology. Indeed, I did not feel that I belonged to that class of eminent scientists who had written such chapters. Perhaps it is because I am a kind of mutant: In spite of having experienced war, both German and Soviet occupations, repeated bombardments, dictatorships, and a revolution, I managed nonetheless to engage in scientific research, thus realizing a childhood dream. After having obtained my Doctor Rerum Naturalium degree in Budapest, Hungary, I was fortunate to meet Jacques Monod at the Pasteur Institute, and this became a turning point in my scientific career. In his laboratory, I contributed to the definition of the lactose operon promoter, uncovered intracistronic complementation in β-galactosidase, and investigated the role of cAMP in Escherichia coli. In my own laboratory, together with many gifted students and collaborators, I studied the role of adenylate cyclase in bacterial virulence. This allowed the engineering of recombinant adenylate cyclase toxin from Bordetella pertussis for the development of protective and therapeutic vaccines.
authors.affiliation: Institut Pasteur, Paris, France. ullmann@pasteur.fr
authors.forename: Agnes
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ullmann
mesh_terms: D037361:Adenylate Cyclase Toxin / Q000235:genetics / Q000633:toxicity*; D001886:Bordetella pertussis / Q000472:pathogenicity; D000242:Cyclic AMP / Q000378:metabolism*; D004926:Escherichia coli / Q000235:genetics* / Q000502:physiology; D015964:Gene Expression Regulation, Bacterial; D015971:Gene Expression Regulation, Enzymologic; D049673:History, 20th Century; D006801:Humans; D008829:Microbiology / Q000266:history*; D001616:beta-Galactosidase / Q000235:genetics* / Q000378:metabolism*
chemical_list: D037361:Adenylate Cyclase Toxin; D000242:Cyclic AMP; D001616:beta-Galactosidase