Biography

During my PhD, I mainly focused on characterizing the effect of environmental factors (namely temperature and sunlight) and disinfectants on the stability of human viral pathogens as contaminants of aquatic environments. In addition,I developed a novel source tracking tool to identify avian fecal contamination in environmental samples. Thanks to a research fellowship given by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology, I also had the opportunity to explore the diversity of marine viruses in Mediterranean coastal waters by genetic fingerprinting and by next generation sequencing. Later on, I became interested in the long-term effect of environmental stressors on virus communities, so I joined the LCE as a postdoc to investigate the adaptation of enteroviruses to ultraviolet radiation. For 4 years, I worked on developing UV-resistant viruses and characterizing their acquired phenotypic and genetic properties by combining directed evolution experiments, deep sequencing and population genetics. Out of the lab, I am passionate about nature, traveling and scuba diving.

Mission

My mission is to understand how natural environmental factors and human activities influence the composition, ecology and functioning of microbial communities, including contaminant pathogens. The ultimate goal of my work is to promote a sustainable development and to preserve the ecosystems from a microbial point of view.

Current work

My current research is focused on the following topics:


(I) Removal of human contaminant viruses by heterotrophic nanoflagellates in the aquatic ecosystems.

(II) Role of land use on the presence of biological and chemical pollution in the Rhone and Ganges rivers.

(III) Exploring the presence, diversity and pathogenicity of human contaminant viruses in stream biofilms.

(IV) Influence of topography on the spatial dissemination of human contaminant viruses.