Research activities
I completed my Ph.D. in Systems Biology (Oct. 2008 – Dec. 2011), under the joint supervision of Dr. Annick Lesne and Dr. Arndt Benecke, within the Systems Epigenomics Group at the Institut des Hautes Études Scientifiques in Bures-sur-Yvette (Paris suburbs). My research focused on the design of systems biology approaches for the analysis and interpretation of transcriptomic data. Mainly, I applied these methods to identify transcriptomic biomarkers associated with the progression of HCV in liver-transplanted patients.To investigate the transcriptomic and proteomic host responses induced by viral infections, I performed a postdoctoral training in Systems Virology (Feb. 2012 – Mar. 2014) in the laboratory of Prof. Michael Katze at the University of Washington in Seattle. Kinetic aspects are often under-considered when characterizing the interplay between viruses and host responses. To overcome these limitations, I devised systems virology strategies for transcriptomic and proteomic analyses centered on host response kinetics. These innovations were developed in the context of: (i) mice infected with respiratory viruses; and (ii) non-human primates infected with viruses causing hemorrhagic fevers. Using these animal and viral models, I demonstrated the importance of early molecular host events in controlling viral infections and regulating pathogenicity. I also contributed to the characterization of animal models used in biomedical research, including the annotation of the Syrian hamster transcriptome.
From April 2014 to April 2019, I was a postdoctoral researcher in Systems Vaccinology within the research unit "Immunology of Viral Infections and Autoimmune Diseases" (ImVA unit) led by Dr. Roger Le Grand at the Commissariat à l'Énergie Atomique et aux Énergies Alternatives in Fontenay-aux-Roses. My project aimed to study the diversity of cell populations during vaccination and HIV inflammation. In collaboration with Dr. Anne-Sophie Beignon, I applied systems approaches to predict optimal delays between prime and boost injections in a Modified Vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA) vaccine model in non-human primates. Additionally, I worked with Dr. Elisabeth Menu on metagenomic approaches to explore the diversity of vaginal and rectal microbiotas in cynomolgus macaques.
Since September 2019, I have been an Associate Professor in Systems Immunology at Sorbonne University, within the research unit "Immunology-Immunopathology-Immunotherapy" (i3 unit), directed by Prof. Encarnita Mariotti-Ferrandiz, at the Hospital of the Pitié-Salpêtrière. I am a member of the SIMRA team (Systems Immunology of the Immune and Microbial Repertoires in Autoimmune Diseases), where my research focuses on understanding the molecular and cellular mechanisms involved in autoimmune and autoinflammatory diseases. More specifically, I develop systems immunology approaches to: (i) identify biomarkers associated with disease severity; (ii) integrate multi-omics data to understand diseases across different complexity levels; and (iii) predict patients' responses to immunotherapies.