Pr. SABAOU Nasserdine
1956-2019
A worldwide icon in the field of bacterial taxonomy...
Pr. Nasserdine Sabaou was born in the popular district of Birkhadem (Algiers), on Monday, September 8, 1956. He obtained his Baccalaureate of Secondary Education (Natural Sciences) in 1974, then once at the university, he majored in Microbiology (graduated in June 1978), at the USTHB university of Algiers. He got a Magister degree in Microbiology, at the same university, after a successful dissertation defence in October 1980. The late Pr supervised his Magister thesis. Bounaga, who was unfortunately lost following a car crash during the ’80s. Eight years later, he nailed his Ph.D. (State Doctorate) in Microbiology (September 1988, USTHB, Algiers).
His research work was dedicated mainly to the taxonomy of actinobacteria, his favourite field of microbiology. His first publications (1981, 1983, 1987) focused on the interactions between Fusarium spp. and Nocardiopsis dassonvillei and Streptomyces alni following his thesis work on actinobacteria with a penchant for taxonomy and a little antibiosis. He already noted at the time that the new actinobacterial species were in hundreds, but unfortunately needed molecular confirmation that, at the time, had not yet taken its steps in Algeria.
After his Ph.D., he got a post-doc position at the INPL-ENSAIA in Nancy, in the Microbiology Laboratory, to research antifungal antibiotics secreted by rare actinomycetes isolated from Saharan soils (from November 1993 to July 1994), funded by a French government scholarship obtained after a national-level selection through the Minister de l’enseignement supérieur et de la recherché scientifique ‘MESRS’.
During his life as a researcher, he had the opportunity to hold certain responsibilities in research instances, he was (among other things) head of the Research Laboratory on Bioactive Products and Biomass Valorization (2000); member of the scientific council of the E.N.S. of Kouba (since 1988, until 2019); member of the board of the Algerian Society of Microbiology (from 1996 to 2006); member of the national university commission (since 2002); Chairman of the Scientific Council of the Center for Scientific and Technical Research on Arid Regions (from 1999 to 2003) and a valuable member (from 1997 to 2005); and above all: (most dedicated) head of the LBSM Microbial Systems Biology Laboratory (since its creation, until 2018).
Thanks to the immeasurable efforts of the late Professor Sabaou, the Laboratory of Biology of Microbial Systems (LBSM) was created in 2012, based on the reorganization of the Microbiology team which was initially part of the Laboratory for Research on Bioactive Products and Biomass Valorization (LPBVB), from 2000 to 2011.
The LBSM Lab, Professor Sabaou's family and home, has more than 50 members: 9 Professors, 8 Lecturers, 20 Assistant Professors, 16 PhD students, and a laboratory engineer: a family that is constantly growing.
Professor Sabaou has an outstanding record of impactful publications: more than 190 research papers, with 3,124 citations, an H index of 31, and an i10-index of 98 (Google Scholar).
In his favourite field, bacterial taxonomy, he contributed significantly to the description of new taxa isolated in Algeria, with 2 new genera and more than 16 new species of actinobacteria, as well as the description of the bioactivities and structures (complete or partial) of at least 40 antibiotics, 20 new bioactive molecules, in addition to a large collection of bacterial and actinobacterial strains (a list that is constantly growing…). He also had the pleasure of reviewing research articles in national and international journals especially those dealing with Saccharothrix algeriensis), such as the international journals “Current Microbiology”; "International Journal of Systematic and Evolutionary IJSEM"; for which he examined about thirty articles on new taxa (genera and species) which earned him a distinction as an outstanding reviewer; issued by the same journal; “Canadian Journal of Microbiology”; “Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek”, and the national journals “Science Technologie” (Constantine, Algeria) and “Algerian Journal of Research in Arid Regions (JARA)”.
During his years of relentless scientific work, he collaborated with eminent researchers, such as Pr. Lebrihi Ahmed and Pr. Mathieu Florence (Laboratory of Chemical Engineering, INP- ENSAT of Toulouse), since 2002 by working on the Diversity of actinobacteria, bioactive compounds, mycotoxins, biological control, and growth promotion”; Pr. Klenk Hans-Peter (DSMZ, Germany, then Newcastle University, UK), since 2011, in the field of “Taxonomy of new genera and species actinobacteria” and Pr. Barakate Mustapha, from Caddi Ayad University in Marrakech, since 2013, on “Biocontrol” aspects.
Professor Sabaou has always been grateful to his mentors, from primary to university.
Indeed, he praised the late Pr. Mr. Bounaga Djilali and his wife Pr. Mrs. Bounaga Nicole, by addressing them a brilliant tribute by naming the new family of actinobacteria in their name: Bounagaea algeriensis.
We keep in our hearts a memory of a person first devoted to science and who never ceased to help anyone aspiring to contribute to research and knowledge, in the most perfect and especially the humblest one.
May Allah welcome him to his vast paradise.