Amoebae team at IPG

Nina ALLOUCH, Bioinformatician

I was born in Poland but have lived most of my life in France where I graduated in engineering at AgroParistech and obtained a master's degree in Bioinformatics at the University of Paris-Saclay. I was lucky to do an interesting and rewarding internship in bioinformatics at the Institut Pasteur in Guadeloupe working on the genomics of Naegleria. When I finished my studies, I was happy to return and take up the post of Bioinformatician at the Institute. I'm now continuing the work on the genomics, transcriptomics and proteomics of free-living amoebae.

In the Amoebae team, I work mainly on understanding the biology, pathogenicity and virulence of Naegleria fowleri using bioinformatics (axis 1).

When I'm not in the lab, I love to enjoy nature, whether hiking, swiming or snorkelling in the sea. You can also find me at the gym or at the Capoeira club next to the Institute. On quieter days, I enjoy cooking and painting at home.

Isabel MARCELINO, PhD, HDR

After completing undergraduate studies in Biochemistry at the University de Faro (Algarve, Portugal), I started my PhD in Chemical Engineering at the Animal Cell technology Lab (ITQB/IBET, Oeiras, Portugal). During my PhD thesis, I developed a process at semi-industrial scale for the production, purification, and storage of an inactivated vaccine against Heartwater, a tick-borne disease caused by the obligate intracellular bacteria Ehrlichia ruminantium. As I wanted to know more about the proteins involved in the bacterium virulence and the mechanisms underlying the bacterium interaction with its host endothelial cells, I moved to the Mass Spectrometry Lab (ITQB, Oeiras, Portugal). During this post-doc, and as a PI of a research project, I focused on identifying differentially expressed proteins in virulent and attenuated E. ruminantium strains, using proteomics. Afterwards, I moved to CIRAD (Guadeloupe, French West Indies), where I set-up a 2D-DIGE proteomic platform and continued my studies on E. ruminantium -host cells interaction using proteomics. During these 2 years, I was particularly interested in identifying (i) E. ruminantium proteins with phosphorylation and glycosylation patterns potentially associated to virulence and (ii) analyzed the proteins differentially expressed between E. ruminantium-infected and non-infected hosts cells. In December 2016, I joined the Institut Pasteur of Guadeloupe (IPG) to work on free-living amoebae (FLA) and, in particular, on the brain-eating amoeba Naegleria fowleri biology and pathogenesis. At IPG, I belong to the LEMIC and I lead the IPG Amoebae Team. If you want to know more about my career path, you can consult https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5454-8811.

When I'm not in the lab, I enjoy traveling, dancing and reading.

Virginie NERRIERE, senior laboratory technician

After obtaining a degree in Biological and Biotechnological Analysis at the Lycée Bel Air in Fontenay le Comte, France, I worked in various pharmaceutical, veterinary and hospital laboratories. I then worked in the ActivBiolab laboratory in Challans/St Gilles Croix de Vie (France) where I became head of the bacteriology department. In 2020, I joined the team of the specialized medical biology laboratory (LMMS) of the Pasteur Institute of Guadeloupe to reinforce the Covid activity and complete my skills in molecular biology (quantitative PCR, MinION sequencing).

I am in charge of metrology at the LMMS and participates in the research work of the LEMic laboratory on antibiotic resistance. And I work with the Amoebae team on axis 3 (services : Naegleria sp. detection in hotsprings).

When I am not in the lab, you can find me scuba diving or hiking with my family.

Isaure QUETEL, Bioinformatician

During my master’s degree in bioinformatics in 2021 at Aix-Marseillle University, I did an internship in Institut Océanographique Paul Ricard where I evaluated the biodiversity of the teleosteans around the Embiez island in Six-Fours-les-Plages. For my last internship in IFREMER, I studied the spatio-temporal dynamics of Picochlorum, a picophytoplankton, after its bloom in the Thau lagoon. I also compared two kinds of water sampling methods for metagenomic analysis.

At Pasteur Institute, I perform metagenomic analysis for both LEMic and LECoV laboratories. With the Amoebae team, I characterise the different amoebae species present in hot springs and fresh water and their bacteriomes (axis 2).

When I am not in the lab, I am either with my friends or rock climbing !

Youri VINGATARAMIN, PhD student

I was born in Guadeloupe and have completed in September 2020 a master's on Biology Health in Tropical Environment, obtained at the University of the West Indies. During my end-of-study internship within the Amoebae Team @ IPG, I isolated several thermophilic free-living amoebae from different hot springs in Guadeloupe, in order to characterize the bacteriome of these amoebae and to evaluate the potential of these amoebae to propagate bacteria resistant to amoebae. I am now starting my 3-years PhD thesis and my works aims to study the diversity and distribution of amoebae populations (and characterize their bacteriome) in water networks in Guadeloupe. My PhD thesis is co-funded by the Region Guadeloupe.

When I'm not in the lab, I enjoy doing sports and spend times with my friends.