Each person in our lab makes a significant contribution to our research. We employ a proactive approach to science by constantly asking the question, “What if…?” Meet our current team to learn more about their individual “What if…” focus areas.
Our Team
Current Team
Principle Investigator
Maria Carla Saleh, Ph.D.
Principal Investigator, Viruses and RNAi Unit, Department of Virology, Institut Pasteur Paris
“What if we redefined innate immunity by better understanding the immune system of infected insects? What if we could selectively control infected insects from transmitting diseases to humans?”
Staff Scientist
Vanesa Mongelli
PostDoctoral Fellow
“What if the innate immune system could impact viral evolution? What if we could remove the insect immunity pathways one by one? What if viral population diversity could be modified by removing some immune pathways?”
Post Docs
Cassandra Koh
PostDoctoral Fellow
“What if we could replicate how an insect virus becomes part of the inherited virome of a mosquito? What if insect-specific viruses can be used to prevent the transmission of emerging human viral pathogens?”
Fernando Merwaiss
PostDoctoral Fellow
“What if same regions of the arbovirus genome fulfill different functions in the mosquito and the mammalian hosts favoring viral replication in one but not the other? What if we identify the molecular mechanisms that drive evolution of these genome regions in order to keep a constant equilibrium between hosts?”
Alessandro Torri
PostDoctoral Fellow
“What if the invertebrate immune system is not just a defense mechanism but a communication system that allows trans-kingdom crosstalk? What if RNA interference is a key player of this process?”
Bryan Arias
PostDoctoral Fellow
“What if the circular viral DNAs produced during RNA virus infection provide immune protection from subsequent infection? What if we can engineer these circular viral DNAs from insect-specific viruses to protect mosquitoes against pathogenic virus infection(s)?
Sabrina Johanna Fletcher
PostDoctoral Fellow
“What if we can understand how virus infected cells transmit immune signals to non-infected cells to protect them? What if we could find the cell surface dsRNA receptor and use it to control arboviruses dissemination?”
Yasutsugu Suzuki
PostDoctoral Fellow
“What if we could find why some mosquitoes transmit viral diseases and some do not? What if very ancient viral insertions in the mosquito genome would play a role in mosquito antiviral immunity? What if we could predict risks for expansion of novel transmission routes of vector-borne diseases?”
Students
Engineers and Technicians
Hervé Blanc
Technician
“What if my deep sequencing libraries could be created faster, better and more efficiently in order to give the scientists the data they need to make even more discoveries, conclusions and ‘Aha!’ moments?”
Valerie Dorey
Technician and Lab Manager
“What if we could further streamline our experimental protocols to make the lab operate even more efficiently? What if each lab member could do more with their individual research because I was able to provide additional experimental support?”
Bioinformatics
Administrative Staff
Lionel Frangeul
Bioinformatician
“What if the informatics structure was so strong that our deep sequencing analysis could provide each scientist with solid biological and mathematical data to clarify results and propose new biological models?”
Brigitte Bidault
Administrative Assistant
“What if all administrative distractions like equipment needs, travel arrangements, welcoming of PhD Students and Post-docs, scheduling, planning and budgeting, were taken care of so that the lab members could focus all their energy just on the research and their experiments?”
Honorary Member
Lab Alumni
Visiting Sabbaticals
Susan Carpenter
Iowa State University
Post-docs
Bertsy Goic (Chili)
Virginia de Oliveira (Brazil)
now Assistant Professor, Universidad Federal do Tocantins, Brazil
Juan Mondotte (Argentina)
Lorena Tomé-Poderti (Uruguay)
Nicolas Vodovar
now Research Associate, Lariboisière Hospital – INSERM UMR-S 942, Paris, France
Ph.D Students
Benjamin Obadia (French)
now PostDoc, University of California, Berkeley, California, USA
Margot Karlikow (French)
now PostDoc at University of Toronto
Pascal Miesen (German)
now PostDoc at Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, Netherlands
Marine Petit (French)
now PostDoc at University of California, Davis, USA
Enzo Poirier (French)
now PostDoc at Francis Crick Institute, London, UK
M.Sc and Summer Students
Chloé Baron (France)
Christian Bolton (USA)
Irene Chacon (Uruguay)
Adrien Paul-Dubois-Taine (France)
Nidia Schemmel Jofre (Chili)
Petro Leka (Albania)
Remi Woussen (France)
Last updated: March 2019