In collaboration with Institut Pasteur, QBI presents a seminar with Lise Musset, Head of the Parasitology Laboratory at the Institut Pasteur in French Guiana.

Dr. Musset holds a PharmD and PhD from Université Paris-Descartes and studied the mechanisms of resistance to antimalarial drugs and their evolution for 20 years. As the head of the French National Reference Center for Malaria and the WHO Collaborating Center for surveillance of antimalarial drug resistance, she develops projects related to the burden of malaria in the Amazonian territory. Her areas of interest relate to understanding the mechanisms of resistance and their associated genetic factors, developing or evaluating new diagnostic methods, characterizing malaria transmission in French Guiana, and enhancing knowledges of local inhabitants about malaria.

Her team identified a phenomenon of natural reversion of resistance to chloroquine in French Guiana, seven years after the withdrawal of this molecule (Pelleau et al., 2015, PNAS) and characterized the selection of artemisinin resistance in Guyana (Mathieu et al., 2020, eLife). Their last achievement was the identification of piperaquine resistant parasites in the Guiana Shield and its specific evolution compared to other foci as in Southeast Asia (Florimond et al., 2024, LID). Dr. Musset has served on numerous review groups and advisory bodies for the Regional and National Health Authorities and the WHO. Her research is funded principally by the Santé public France and the Ministry of Research in France. Collaborations are in place with groups in several countries throughout the America's continents and France.

Talk Title: Challenges for Malaria Elimination in the Guiana Shield

In her talk, Dr. Musset will provide an overview of malaria epidemiology in the Guiana Shield and discuss the various projects her team undertakes to enhance malaria control in the region. Her lab's work spans field research, patient care, and bench science, with a particular focus on antimalarial drug resistance. This research includes extensive cell culturing of parasites, induction of drug resistance, and the use of genetic and genomic approaches to identify new molecular markers. Additionally, it explores the dynamics of resistance emergence and spread, supported by the largest collection of P. falciparum parasites from South America, dating back to 1995.