Pseudomonas aeruginosa causes chronic lung infections in people with cystic  fibrosis (CF). During its adaptation to the CF lung, P. aeruginosa undergoes changes that allow it to become resistant to antibiotics and survive immune system attacks.
This project aims to study the adaptation of P. aeruginosa over the years of lung colonization, in order to tailor therapeutic approaches and predicting the course of the disease based on the characteristics of the colonizing bacterial strain.
In addition, understanding how certain types of P. aeruginosa respond to modulators will allow the assessment of the reduction of anti Pseudomonas therapies in an individualized manner.
To this end, researchers will analyze about 700 P. aeruginosa isolates, collected and stored for about 19 years (2004-2023), from 59 people with CF, identifying PA mutations and clones associated with persistence in CF lung and poor clinical outcome.  The factors that enable P. aeruginosa to resist antibiotics or to persist during modulator therapies and cause harm to the host change over time will be highlighted. Researchers will also investigate the ability of selected P. aeruginosa strains to produce biofilms, invade CF respiratory tissue cells, and produce substances involved in lung damage.
The data obtained, correlated with the clinical course of people with CF over time and the drug therapies given, will allow us to understand the clinical impact of some bacterial adaptations. ù
This will make it possible to personalize therapies, tailoring them to the patient according to the characteristics of the bacterial strain colonizing him or her, and to understand in more detail the effect of modulators on bacteria.