Co-Founder

Research background and interest

During my Ph. D. in France, I investigated the microbial communities colonizing populations of vectors including mosquitoes and ticks that lived in contrasted habitats and with different histories of gene flow. I moved to Finland in 2015 and joined the Metapopulation Research Center where I studied how microbial organisms contribute to the performance, immunity and metabolism of the Glanville Fritillary Butterfly as well as its ability to cope with variations in host plant quality.

In 2017 I joined the University of Lyon (France) as an Associate Professor. I am currently the deputy director of the ‘Microbial Dynamics and Viral Transmission’ Research Group within the ‘Microbial Ecology’ Research Unit.

My research focuses on the genetic basis of the functional interactions between symbionts and the Asian tiger mosquito, Aedes albopictus. I have always been fascinated by the ecology of interspecific interactions, and have for several years studied the dynamics of microbial communities in arthropod vectors. These communities are complex and can be altered by various host physiological factors such as behavior, development, immunity, nutrition and reproduction. Furthermore, they are likely to show various levels of interactions with the pathogens vectored. However, the dynamics of these interactions are not fully understood, particularly in wild disease vector populations. Thus, I am interested in disentangling these interactions in complex ecosystems.