Lab members

 

Principal Investigator

Chef de Laboratoire

Arboviruses and Insect Vectors

 

Ecology, University of Toulouse III (Paul Sabatier), France

Ecophysiology and Population dynamics of terrestral invertebrates, University of Paris XI, France (Nicole Pasteur)

Institut Pasteur, Ecology of Vectorial Systems (François Rodhain)

 

University of Paris XII, France

 

My project concerns the emergence of the mutated strain of CHIKV (E1-A226V) during the outbreak of 2011 in Congo (Brazzaville) in relation with the recent introduction and expansion of Ae. albopictus. As stated in East Africa where this mutation has emerged leading to a better transmission by Ae. albopictus, is this scenario applicable to West Africa?

 

 

 

 

My project is part of the FP7 DenFree project. The tasks where I am involved aim to examine the role of mosquito vectors in dengue emergence, with special emphasis on the European context. I will be implicated in evaluating the ability of European Aedes albopictus to transmit imported DENV strains (originated from DEN endemic regions, Thailand and Cambodia) and in identifying viral genetic changes after experimental alternating cycling to enhance potential of Ae. albopictus from southern France to transmit imported DEN strains from Southeast Asia.

 

 

 

 

My project is part of the FP7 Vectorie project on surveillance of two arthropod-borne diseases, West-Nile and Chikungunya, in Europe. Our laboratory is involved in defining the vector competence of Ae. albopictus mosquitoes from different European countries for CHIK virus at low temperatures. I am responsible of three main tasks which are: (i) experimentally challenges of field-collected European populations of Ae. albopictus (France, Italy, Montenegro) with different CHIKV isolates; (ii) evaluation of mosquito thermo-preference and (iii) effects of temperature on gene expression in temperate Ae. albopictus infected by different strains of CHIKV and submitted to thermal stress, using a transcriptomic approach provided by the technology of high throughput RNA sequencing.

 

 

Microbial Ecology, University of Lyon I (Claude Bernard), France

Microbial Ecology, University of Lyon I (Claude Bernard), France

 

The aim of my Ph.D. project is to study the competitive interaction between the original CHIKV strain E1-226A and the newly emerged variant E1-226V when the shift between Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus operated in the Indian Ocean region, leading to an adaptation of CHIKV to Ae. albopictus. I also study the consequences of host alternation (between a vertebrate and an invertebrate host) for CHIKV evolution in cellular and animal models.

Biochemistry and Biotechnologies Engineering.INSA de Lyon, France.

 

 

I am in charge of the maintenance of the insectaries.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

My project as invited researcher concerns the risk assessment of CHIKV transmission in Latin America through the evaluation and comparison of vector competence of Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus populations of contrasted ecology, sampled across the American continent, to different strains of CHIKV. As DENV is intensely transmitted by Ae. aegypti in several parts of Latin America, I will evaluate the performance of CHIKV to infect and to be transmitted by DENV infected Ae. aegypti and Ae. albopictus, mimicking the case of introduction of CHIKV in a context of DENV circulation. As CHIKV has never been transmitted in the Americas, I will also study the adaptation of a CHIKV strain isolated during an epidemic in the Indian Ocean to an Ae. albopictus population from to Latin America by in vitro experimental selection.

Besides, I am also the Editor in Chief of Memorias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, a multidisciplinary scientific journal that publishes original research throughout the fields of tropical medicine, parasitology and microbiology, which has the highest impact factor in Latin America for some years (IP= 2.148).

 

 

Institut Pasteur, Ecology of Vectorial Systems

 

 

 

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