Biography                 

I am a CNRS research director and group leader at the Institut de recherche en infectiologie de Montpellier, France (IRIM). I am also heading the CEMIPAI, the CNRS-Montpellier University platform providing BSL3 services, including BSL3 super-resolution microscopies, for cell biology researches on class 3 pathogens: viruses and bacterias. My research focus is dedicated to the comprehension of molecular and cellular assembly mechanisms of RNA enveloped viruses, especially HIV-1, Influenza A virus, and recently the pandemic SARS-CoV2, and also virus-like particles and extracellular vesicles formation and production. These fundamental researches can lead to future therapeutic medicine based on delivery bio-nano-particle tools.

I started my research life completing a Ph.D. in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the Pierre et Marie Curie University Paris 6 in 1996. I studied in vitro the dimerization of HIV-1 RNA transcripts in order to understand the nature of RNA-RNA and RNA-NC interactions leading to the formation of these dimers. Then, I moved on at NIH in Maryland USA to study Retroviruses and the role of RNA in viral particle formation. Back to France, in Lyon in 2003 then Montpellier in 2012, I persue my researches on the mechanisms of retrovirus assembly and on the role of cellular cofactors and lipids in RNA enveloped virus assembly and budding, with a particular interest in nanoscopies to study these events.

Research topics

Research Research of RNA enveloped viruses and host cell co-factors (lipids, membrane proteins and cortical actine cofactors) involved in virus egress and single molecule fluorescent based microscopy methods and Bio-AFM for the detection of viruses and protein targets during infectious diseases.