Welcome Joyce ÁLVAREZ-BARRAGÁN, new Researcher at MycSA

Joyce ÁLVAREZ-BARRAGÁN has been recruited by INRAE's Plant Health and Environment Department to work with MycSA on the regulation of secondary metabolism induced by diversification of producer cells. In filamentous fungi, this heterogeneity in cellular metabolism is expressed at the hyphal level, with heterogeneous populations distributed in spatio-temporal organisations. Joyce will study the dynamics of this heterogeneity in order to understand its importance in the adaptation of filamentous fungi to their environment. To do this, she will develop and apply approaches to characterise cellular heterogeneity and analyse variations in the transcriptome and metabolome in isogenic cells.

We'll let her introduce herself : I am a microbiologist with a particular interest in fungi and their interactions with other organisms and the environment. I obtained my MSc in Biochemical Sciences from UNAM (Mexico), where I studied polyurethane degradation by filamentous fungi and the responsible enzyme. I completed my PhD in Molecular and Cellular Biology at the University of Pau, investigating fungal–bacterial interactions in hydrocarbon-contaminated marine sediments. After a postdoctoral position at the University of Burgundy on the molecular composition of wine fermentation and two years as ATER at the University of Avignon and INRAE SQPOV, where I studied Bacillus cereus, oxidative stress, and the TSPO protein interactome, I now join the MycSA unit at INRAE Bordeaux to investigate cellular heterogeneity and mycotoxin production in Fusarium.