About my research

I am a third-year PhD student in the TrEE team at TIMC in Grenoble (France). My research focuses on insertion sequences (IS), which are the simplest class of prokaryotic transposable elements: they only code for a transposase, the enzyme that catalyzes their movement within genomes. I’m interested in how their movement contributes to prokaryotic genome evolution and adaptation. I combine wet lab with dry lab approaches: at the bench, I try to determine how selection filters IS insertions on a short timescale. At my computer, I analyze the distribution of IS in a wide range of prokaryotic genomes to explore IS dynamics on a longer timescale.

I’m supervised by Ivan Junier and Thomas Hindré: Ivan is a biophysicist and helps me analyze my large datasets, and Thomas is a microbiologist who helps me design and carry out my wet lab experiments. Sophie Abby also occasionally helps me out when I need to deal with a problem related to prokaryotic phylogeny.

If this sounds interesting to you, feel free to reach out to discuss my research!

The image above shows the distribution of various IS families across prokaryotic genomes.

This animation shows the dynamics of IS-mediated mutations in the Long-Term Evolution Experiment.

About me

In my spare time, I do amateur photography (you can see a few samples here). I also play the violin (and sometimes the saxophone, much to my neighbour’s dismay) and watch a lot of movies (not necessarily good ones).