Group members & Alumni

Other group members

Valérie Rodrigues
2021-now Scientist, Immunology and transcriptomics
Valérie is a scientist in our group since July 2021. She is the WOAH world expert for heartwater disease. She is working mainly in implementing new vaccines against Ehrlichia, developping new diagnostics tools and try to decipher mammalian and insect immune responses in Ehrlichia infection. Valérie comes from Montpellier and enjoys sharing good meals and wines with friends.

Maëlle Bayet
2022-now Biotech Engineer, Molecular biology and entomology
Maëlle is a research assistant in our group since September 2022. She is responsible for genetic engineering in Ehrlichia ruminantium and implementing new cellular tools and pathosystems in our lab. Maëlle is originated from Toulouse, famous pink city in Southwest of France. She loves kite surfing and horse riding.

Rosalie Aprelon
2017-now Lab technician, Molecular biology, serology and entomology
Rosalie is a technician in our group since September 2017. She was involved in the supervision of several students. She works mainly in entomology by maintaining mosquitoes and ticks live collections, working on Ehrlichia development inside the vector tick, collecting ticks from the field as well as maintaining molecular and serological diagnostics capacities on Heartwater. She is responsible for insectarium facilities at CRVC. Rosalie loves singing and dancing traditional Guadeloupean music.

They left us…

Stéphanie Silou
2018-2021 PhD student, Microbiology
(Université des Antilles, Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, FR)
Stephanie grew up in Guadeloupe and went to College at Université des Antilles, Pointe-à-Pitre, where she obtained a master degree in biology. After working as research assistant, she joined the group first in 2017 to work on the genetic manipulation of Ehrlichia ruminantium in the frame of a patent consolidation (SATT AxLR grant). During her PhD, Stephanie studied the molecular determinants of Anaplasmataceae pathogenicity, particularly through the functional characterization of type IV effectomes. She developed alternative strategies to genetic manipulation for E. ruminantium and her work led to a better understanding of the pathogenesis of this vector-borne intracellular pathogenic bacterium. Stéphanie successfully graduated from the Université des Antilles, Pointe-à-Pitre in December 2021. She is now pursing her own path.

Laetitia Compper
2020 Graduate student, Biologie-Santé
(Université des Antilles, Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, FR)
Laetitia graduated from the Université des Antilles, Guadeloupe in 2020, and joined our lab to gain lab research experience in molecular microbioogy. Between January and July 2020, Laetitia worked with Rosalie Aprelon on the characterization of field mosquito populations infected with a Guadeloupean endemic strain of the symbiotic bacterium Wolbachia. Laetitia wants to pursue her academic training by doing a Ph.D on bacterial-host interactions.

Johanna Ré
2017 Graduate student, IUT Genie Biologique
(Université Claude Bernard, Lyon 1, FR)
Johanna graduated from the Université Claude Bernard, Lyon in 2017, and joined our lab to gain lab research experience and further find a position as lab engineer. Between January and July 2017, Johanna worked with Rosalie Aprelon on the prevalence of Wolbachia in two groups of arthropods disease vectors in Guadeloupe. Johanna is a dedicated scuba diver and loves travelling around the world. She works now at Pau’s hospital as a lab assistant in molecular biology.

Christophe Noroy
2015-2018 PhD student, Computational Biology
(Université des Antilles, Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, FR)
Christophe grew up near Dijon in East of France (capital of Burgundy, famous region for its wine, beef, mustard and snails !) and went to college at Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse where he studied bioinformatics. He joined the group first in 2012, then in 2014, to develop S4TE 1.0 and 2.0 versions. Now, Christophe is studying bacterial genome plasticity and its link with virulence. Christophe is the father of a wonderful little dog named Joy ! With 5 scientific articles and 2 patents, Chris successfully graduated from the Université des Antilles, Pointe-à-Pitre in May 2018. He is now the CEO of a startup in Bioinformatics and Software development. Finger crossed for this new adventure.

Jonathan Gordon
2014-2016 Post-doctoral research associate, Computational biology
After great achievements on S. cerevisiae and Xanthomonas spp., Jonathan came in our lab to work on Ehrlichia comparative genomics. Jonathan’s wonderful work led to a better understanding of Ehrlichia genetic secrets.
During his stay in Guadeloupe, Jonathan also perfected his free diving technique to show us astonishing videos… another way to become a world celebrity !

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Adela S. Oliva Chavez
2014-2016 Post-doctoral research associate, Molecular Microbiology
Adela defended her Ph.D. on Anaplasma spp. at the University of Minnesota and came in our lab to work on Ehrlichia molecular pathogenesis. She identified critical bacterial genes involved in the infection process of mammalian host cells. Adela won the Young Scientist Award at the TTP8 Conference (24 to 29 August 2014 in Cape Town, South Africa) for her major scientific contribution on the research on Anaplasmataceae .

Amal Moumène
2011-2015 PhD student, Molecular Microbiology
(Université des Antilles et de la Guyane, Pointe-à-Pitre, Guadeloupe, FR)
Amal grew up in Toulouse in South West of France (famous region for its foie gras and rugby team) and went to college at Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse where she studied plant biology and microbiology. She joined the group in the fall of 2011. Amal worked in identifying effector proteins of E. ruminantium Type IV Secretion System (T4SS) and their role inside the host cell for Ehrlichial invasion. She also characterized the outer membrane proteome of E. ruminantium. Finally, she proved that under specific environmental conditions, a new regulatory protein co-regulated the map and virBD genes, encoding outer membrane proteins and the T4SS, respectively. The aim of her thesis was to better comprehend the intimate nature of E. ruminantium interaction with the host cell. Amal was the responsible of the events committee of the lab and a huge supporter of Toulouse rugby team ! Amal was the first PhD student and successfully graduated from the Université des Antilles et de la Guyane, Pointe-à-Pitre in January 2015 with 5 scientific papers. Her great work paved the way for all the group. We wish her a great career in Science or any domain that will passionate her.

Christophe Noroy
2014 Graduate student, Web development
(Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, FR)
After a first successful stay in our lab for the development of S4TE 1.0 software, Christophe came back for the implementation of S4TE 2.0. This new version of S4TE software shows a killer web-based graphical user interface and brand new useful features (e.g. comparative genomics).

Christophe Noroy
2012 Graduate student, Bioinformatics
(Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, FR)
Christophe graduated from the Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse in 2012, and joined our lab to gain bioinformatics research experience and further pursuits to become a engineer in bioinformatics. Between January and June 2012, Christophe sought to develop S4TE (Searching Algorithm for Type IV secretion system Effector proteins ) 1.0 software, a tool for Type IV effectors prediction and genomic context analysis. Christophe is also a cooking super star.

Catherine Carasco-Lacombe
2008-2011 Lab technician, Molecular biology
Catherine goes by “Cathy“ was a technician in our group from September 2009 to August 2010. She was the very first member of the group, and helped to set it up and get things running. She drove the T4SS expression study in E. ruminantium and helped mentoring students. Cathy left our lab to pursue her career at CIRAD, Montpellier. She is now lab technician and responsible for metrology inside AMAP research unit. Cathy brought fashion into the lab.

Rémi Piquemal
2010 Graduate student, Molecular biology
(Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, FR)
Remi graduated from the Université Paul Sabatier, Toulouse in 2010, and joined our lab to gain lab research experience and further find a position as lab engineer. Between January and July 2010, Remi worked with Cathy on the T4SS expression study in E. ruminantium. Remi is a dedicated football (soccer) supporter and has impressive comics drawing skills.