n this in-cites interview, Dr. Guy Baranton of the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France talks about his highly cited work in the field of Microbiology. The ISI Essential Science Indicators Web product indicates that Dr. Baranton has 34 papers, which have been cited a total of 1,498 times to date, ranking him among the top 100 Microbiology researchers of the past decade. Dr. Baranton’s most-cited paper is "Delineation of Borrelia burgdorferi sensu stricto, Borrelia garinii sp nov, and group VS461 associated with Lyme borreliosis," (Int. J. Syst. Bact. 42 [3]: 378-83, July 1992), which is ranked at #20 among the Highly Cited Papers in Microbiology, with 467 citations to date. At the Institut Pasteur, Dr. Baranton is a member of the Microbial Pathogenesis Department, where he directs the Molecular and Medical Bacteriology Unit, and oversees the Borrelia burgdorferi and Leptospira Molecular Genetics Servers. Related feature: Highlighting France in an all countries ranking for the field of Microbiology.

We had been using many molecular typing methods on the same set of Borrelia isolates from different geographical locations. Every method resulted in the same grouping scheme: the same isolates were in the same clusters whatever the method (MLEE, ribotyping, PFGE, APPCR...). This led us to suspect that Borrelia burgdorferi was more diverse that initially thought when considering a limited set of isolates. The aforementioned methods allowed us to carefully select the isolates to be submitted to whole-DNA relatedness studies on a scientific basis in order to reveal the species to which they belonged.

  What would you rate as your most difficult or trying professional moment?

There have been several periods in my life when I had to make critical choices, including:

• After 1968 and the student movement in France, I had to either go on with hospital work as a resident or travel in the Far East.
• After receiving my M.D. in 1970, I had to choose between dealing with humans as a clinician or with microorganisms as a biologist. I finally chose microorganisms since their noxious properties are not conscious!
• In the eighties, I had to choose either to go on with working in the developing countries (I had been a sort of medical tramp in West Indies, French Guiana, Morocco, and Egypt) or to begin a second career in research.

What brings me the most satisfaction was my stay in a developing country in ‘71-72, which decided my professional future. When working towards my M.D., I was fascinated by a course on plague given by Prof. M. Baltazard. At the end of this course, Prof. Baltazard asked if a volunteer was interested in studying a potential plague focus during military duties. I answered positively with enthusiasm and for one and a half years I was based in the Mauritanian Sahara, trapping rodents in the desert. I made many observations and wrote a report on ecological features of this Saharan area. This report suggested how the climatic conditions (unusual rainfalls) could create favorable conditions for plague, grouping together the main actors: vegetation, rodents, human (nomad) population and their domestic animals, fleas, and hygrometry, permitting a better survival of plague bacilli and leading to an increased probability of plague outbreaks. Unfortunately, during this stay in Mauritania, Prof. Baltazard died. Before dying, he made arrangements for a fellowship, which led to my inscription in the microbiological course in the Institut Pasteur.

  Did you expect to become highly cited, or is this surprising to you?

Taxonomic papers often are "obligate citations," so the situation is not unexpected. However, I am still surprised by the level. In fact, when submitting the paper we had to fight hard against the referees. Both clinicians and bacteriologists tend to not like their preferred bacterium to be split and given new names. Later on, the relevance of the taxonomic changes appeared clinically and ecologically obvious. Maybe the recent high citation level is proportional to the early resistance!

  What lessons would you draw from your work to pass on to the next generation of researchers?

I would like to stress the significance of taxonomy which indeed reflects the phylogenetics and evolution of living beings. Each taxon is associated with particular ecological, epidemiological, clinical, and even historical features. We are beginning to be able to read the genes, and are looking for sequence remnants or scars from major epidemics. Of course, in the genes of taxonomically well-defined microorganisms, similar scars are present. We will probably soon be able to read and date the prominent events during human history such as migrations, expansions, or extinctions of population or lineages, in the genes of human-associated bacteria.

  If you had the power to make a single, sweeping change in the way that scientific research is conducted or presented, what would it be?

I feel uncomfortable with the intrinsically elitist behavior of researchers, as well as the critical role of money in the appropriation of discoveries that should belong to the patrimony of humanity. However, I am afraid there is no easy way to change the situation and introduce more solidarity and generosity in research. I also think we have to be cautious with any kind of "ego" preferences, not only at an individual scale but also at a collective scale. For instance, I am quite circumspect with anthropocentrism, ethnocentrism, nationalism, religious proselytism, and even patriotism.

  Would you like to make any further comments about your work?

I wish to inform students that they may be confident that if their data are scientifically founded, they will be recognized. When published, our paper on newly described Borrelia species was very rarely cited since most of spirochetologues were reticent on its implications (a colleague wrote that "these results have to be confirmed by other teams"). Today, eight years later, it is among the top-cited papers identified by ISI Essential Science Indicators Web product.

Related feature: Highlighting France in an all countries ranking for the field of Microbiology.

Dr. Guy Baranton
Institut Pasteur
Paris, France