After an initial training in computer science and programming (ENSEIRB, Bordeaux), I did a phD on automatic gene identification in animal genomes (IBENS and University of Evry). I then joined the international ENCODE and mouseENCODE efforts to understand the human and mouse genome function (CRG, Barcelona). Integrating pioneering transcriptomics data led us to discover a much more diverse, complexe and pervasive human transcriptome than previously anticipated. Comparing human and mouse transcriptomics data from a wide pannel of tissues also enabled us to define the set of genes and the set of tissues for which mouse is good model for human, which is important in the medical field.
Because causal mutations implicated in traits of agronomic interest or in human diseases mostly lie within regulatory regions, I decided to focus my research on the non-coding regulatory genome, which desearves a lot of efforts. I am in particular interested in the automatic identification of enhancer/gene relationships in animal genomes, in studying their evolution across species as well as their impact on phenotypes of agronomic importance. Finally I am also interested in the genome wide identification of long non-coding RNAs and chimeric RNAs.