Anna-Sophie Fiston-Lavier, decoder and coder of evolution

In the age of high-throughput sequencing, evolutionary genomics must be able to process the masses of data produced from decoded genomes. As a genomicist and bioinformatician, Anna-Sophie Fiston-Lavier is an accomplished scientist. The teacher-researcher at theInstitut des sciences de l'évolution de Montpellier (Isem) combines experimental and computational approaches to understand how repeated elements in genomes influence evolutionary processes such as species adaptation.

" In my research work, I like to be at the beginning and the end of the chain: collecting samples, thinking about the sequencing protocol, then interpreting the analyses, possibly with the algorithms and IT tools I develop." The only biologist in UM's computer science teaching department, she defends the importance of her specialty in extracting relevant information from the many non-homogenous datasets collected. " The bioinformatician is not just a programmer who fixes printers and presses buttons... Above all, he or she must translate the biological question, understand the theories underlying existing tools and have the expertise and critical hindsight needed to improve them if necessary ."

The world of transposable elements

A pioneer, Anna-Sophie Fiston-Lavier took the first Master's degree in bioinformatics at Paris-Diderot in 2000. As a young biology student at the time, she remembers falling head over heels in front of a black screen scanned with green characters during her first class: " It was Matrix, and I realized that it was up to us students to program and develop software for the analysis of biological data! It was this training that opened the door to a thesis at theInstitut Jaques Monod, where she plunged into the world of transposable elements(TEs). Her research - a comparison of Drosophila genomes - confirmed the hypothesis of the impact of a so-called "P element" on genome evolution.

Spotted by a Stanford professor invited to a seminar in France, she was offered a post-doctorate at the Californian university. At a time when high-throughput sequencing techniques were being rapidly perfected, the young French researcher was a pioneer in the development of tools for detecting ETs in sequencing data. In particular, with the development of T-lex, " the big beast that detects and analyzes ETs in sequencing data ". A reference to T-rex, of course, but also to Solexa, one of the first sequencing companies.

Her work is as effective as her inspiration. By comparing ancestral Drosophila from East Africa with current American and European populations, Anna-Sophie Fiston-Lavier has helped to highlight the particular dynamics of ETs and their impact on adaptation processes. Some ETs appear to act on the regulation of genes coding for odorant receptors, decisive traits for species adaptation. Since then, she has continued to take an interest in sequencing technologies, which are also evolving and providing a better understanding of adaptation processes, particularly in insects. For example, she has contributed to the study of the genome of the Belgica Antarctica midge, the only insect living in Antarctica.

"Involving students in research".

After five years at the heart of Stanford's international emulation, the young researcher returned to France for family reasons, " a rather difficult time when I had to readapt to the French system ". Her recruitment at the UM in 2013 enabled her to discover the Montpellier region: " for a Parisian like me, it reminds me a little of California! ". Attached to the IT department, she developed a taste for educational innovation, holding the position of head of the bioinformatics master's program for six years. "In addition to imparting knowledge, teaching encouraged me to find ways of getting students involved in research ", she explains, explaining that she leads a number of innovative teaching projects, such as the Bioinformatics Learning Lab, Montpellier Omics days and bootcamps, under the Anglo-Saxon influence of project-based teaching.

Anna-Sophie Fiston-Lavier draws on her own experience and career path to get involved with young people. As is often the case, the researcher recounts the importance of the " beautiful encounters " that have marked her career, but also outlines some of the more disastrous ones, such as at the Lycée Jehan in Chelles, where she escaped a reorientation based on prejudice. " For spurious reasons, the school management closed me off to science. Fortunately, with my mother's firm support, I managed to change schools and pass my scientific bac with flying colors.

President of the French Bioinformatics Society

An energy she doesn't hesitate to devote to her other hobbyhorse: the recognition of bioinformatics. " Research is shooting itself in the foot by not recognizing the value of bioinformaticians, who are reduced to a precarious position with fixed-term contracts, which prevents them from capitalizing on their knowledge ". As a result of her commitment, she was elected President of the French Bioinformatics Society in 2021. In recent years, the teacher-researcher has once again devoted more time to her research, thanks in particular to CNRS MITI funding obtained in 2019 and her appointment as a junior member of theInstitutUniversitaire de France in 2021.