Rodolphe Barrangou ☑️
Todd R. Klaenhammer Distinguished Professor
Department of Food, Bioprocessing and Nutrition Sciences
Schaub Food Science Building, Room 339B
rbarran@ncsu.edu WebsiteBio
Area(s) of Expertise
Our laboratory focuses on the biology and genetics of CRISPR-Cas immune systems in bacteria. Using microbiology, molecular biology and genomics approaches, we investigate the use of CRISPR-Cas systems for three types of applications:
- The exploitation of CRISPR spacer hypervariability for genotyping and phylogenetic studies of beneficial and pathogenic bacteria
- Leveraging CRISPR-mediated interference for building up phage resistance in probiotic strains and starter cultures used in food manufacturing
- Harnessing of Cas9-mediated, re-programmable dsDNA cleavage for genome editing in bacteria
These activities provide insights into the genetic and molecular processes that drive CRISPR-mediated adaptive immunity in bacteria and generate novel tools for the manipulation of industrially relevant organisms for food and biotechnological applications.
Teaching Activities
- Introduction to Biopharmaceutical Sciences (BBS 201)
- MR Supervised Research (FS 693)
- Fermentation Microbiology (FS 725)
- DR Supervised Research (FS 893)
Education
B.S. Business Administration University of Wisconsin – Madison 2011
M.S. Functional Genomics North Carolina State University 2004
M.S. Food Science North Carolina State University 2000
Ph.D. Biological Engineering University of Technology in Compiegne 2000
MBA Life Sciences University of Paris V – Rene Descartes 1996
Publications
- Enhanced editing of Bifidobacterium lactis using the endogenous Type I-G CRISPR-Cas system , Applied and Environmental Microbiology (2026)
- Occurrence and applications of CRISPR-Cas systems in bifidobacteria , Applied and Environmental Microbiology (2026)
- A Protoplast System for CRISPR-Cas Ribonucleoprotein Delivery in Pinus taeda and Abies fraseri , Plants (2025)
- AI and machine learning in nutrition: the promise, the challenge, and recommendations , American Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2025)
- Advances in lignocellulosic feedstocks for bioenergy and bioproducts , Nature Communications (2025)
- All systems go: CRISPR crosstalk for enhanced immunity , Cell Host & Microbe (2025)
- Bacterial evolution: CRISPR out and virulence in , Current Biology (2025)
- CRISPRi-ART enables functional genomics of diverse bacteriophages using RNA-binding dCas13d , Nature Microbiology (2025)
- Characterization of diverse Cas9 orthologs for genome and epigenome editing , Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2025)
- Differential modulation of post-antibiotic colonization resistance to Clostridioides difficile by two probiotic Lactobacillus strains , mBio (2025)