Research

Since October 2024, I am a FNRS Research Associate and Professor at UCLouvain, Belgium. I am the leader of the Lab of Integrative Biology. The overall aim of my research is to understand the evolution and functioning of insect-bacteria symbiotic systems. My main models are the diversity of aphids and the symbiotic bacteria associated with them and I consider the diversity of these systems to discover novelties and subtleties in the functioning and evolution of bacterial symbiosis in eukaryotes. My approach is grounded in four pillars: 

1. Examining insect-bacteria symbioses through the prism of biodiversity (moving away from "traditional" models) to uncover novelties and subtleties in the functioning and evolution of bacterial symbiosis in eukaryotes;

2. Maximizing the combined benefits of different levels of information (from molecular/cellular to behavioral and community dimensions) for an integrated/holistic understanding of symbiotic systems;

3. Put the parasitism-mutualism continuum at the heart of the game to take into account the malleability of these symbiotic systems;

4. Integrate the influence of environmental factors to understand the dynamics of insect-microbe symbioses on this continuum, the origin of these associations and the plasticity of symbiotic systems.

Given that the evolutionary ecology of many insect species is largely influenced by the microbes with which they are associated, an Eco-Evo-Devo (ecological evolutionary developmental biology) approach is needed to understand how these symbiotic systems respond and evolve in a context of global change.