Anna-bella Failloux

Biography

 I did my PhD on population genetics of mosquito vectors at the Institute of Evolutionary Sciences at Montpellier (France). In French Polynesia, at the Institut Malardé, I made my first move into medical entomology by studying the adaptation of the vector Aedes polynesiensis to local populations of the parasite Wuchereria bancrofti. In 1994, I joined the Institut Pasteur in Paris where I developed genetic markers of mosquitoes; based on a population genetic approach, I proposed a reconstruction of the migration history of Aedes aegypti. Since 2004, I have extended my field of expertise by developing projects on interactions between different arboviruses (chikungunya, dengue, Rift Valley fever, West-Nile, Yellow fever) and their mosquito vectors. My main interest is to decipher the factors leading to the viral emergence by analysing in depth the vectorial system at the level of vector competence. My laboratory has participated in deciphering the role of the invasive mosquito Aedes albopictus in the worldwide expansion of chikungunya. We are now working on the causes of the expansion of Zika virus in the Americas.  I am now head of the Arboviruses and Insect Vectors Unit at the Institut Pasteur in Paris.

Research Interest

 Medicine