Didier Trono, M.D.

Research

Retroelements constitute important evolutionary forces for the genome of higher organisms, yet their uncontrolled spread, whether from endogenous loci or within the context of viral infections, can cause diseases such as cancer, hepatitis and AIDS. Correspondingly, a variety of host-encoded activities limit this process, belonging to a line of defense commonly called intrinsic or innate immunity, which notably contributes to taming endogenous retroelements and to restricting the cross-species transmission of retroviruses. Our work aims at characterizing the relationship between retroelements and their hosts, which has recently led us to become more generally interested in epigenetic mechanisms regulating the expression of mammalian genomes.