Etienne Simon-Loriere
Can you share a little about yourself and your research?
I’m an evolutionary virologist, leading a small research team in the Virology Department at Institut Pasteur in Paris. My core interest is understanding the mechanisms and consequences of RNA viruses evolution as they circulate in populations or emerge from their reservoir. I have been very fortunate to gain experience through interactions with colleagues with very different background, many of them working in Africa or Southeast Asia, often in response to outbreaks. Because of this, my approach now combines genomic epidemiology and laboratory models of evolution. The lab includes both experimentalists and computational biologists, all aiming to better understand and find ways to combat these pathogens. I’m also more and more interested in how we communicate our results to non-scientists (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cB56mTOX6Wg).
How does your research fit into the bigger picture of Durable?
As we are interested in RNA viruses evolution, we develop tools to better detect or identify these pathogens (and faster and cheaper), as well as approaches to characterize them. Although this is basic science work, these tools and data have direct applications to stakeholders involved in public health surveillance and response, to improve preparedness and countermeasures.
“Being exposed to the coordination efforts to foster synergies and translate the basic science data into actionable information is a growing experience”
What motivates you to be part of Durable?
I’m very excited to be part of DURABLE because of the stimulation from the interactions with the experts gathered, all converging on the same preparedness and mechanistic questions. It goes from exchanges on ways to improve phylogenetic inferences to experimental models (in vitro or more complex) to best recapitulate natural infections, and those are just examples of my specific interests. And being exposed to the coordination efforts to foster synergies and translate the basic science data into actionable information is also a growing experience.
What do you expect to accomplish in the upcoming years within your own institute and by being connected to Durable?
One of the aims is to contribute to the development of a framework to capture and model the potential evolutionary paths that a virus – including a potential new virus X – may follow during its spread or circulation. We want to go from retrospective phylodynamic inferences to real-time, then to forecasting scenarios. This will also help improve assessments of possible impact on countermeasures, providing different layers of data to inform public health measures. In parallel, I also hope to continue to help more junior scientists to grow and become independent, like seniors did for me a few years ago.
What do you expect from Durable in the upcoming near future?
I expect to see the crystallization of several projects developed within the DURABLE consortium, that I hope will be useful to the global science and public health communities, and new joint initiatives further building on the current efforts.
