Professor Serre’s research group are interested in developing genomic approaches to better understand the biology of eukaryotic pathogens and their interactions with their host(s).

Prof. Serre, who performed his PhD studies in the lab of Prof. Svante Pääbo, has a long-standing interest in developing and applying genomic approaches to better understand genetic and epigenetic mechanisms underlying the regulation of the gene expression. Over the years, his group has developed approaches to study how genetic polymorphisms can influence gene expression or to characterize genome-wide epigenetic marks.
His laboratory primarily focuses on Plasmodium vivax, an important human parasite responsible for most malaria cases outside Africa. Since this parasite cannot be continuously propagated in cultures and studied in vitro, they are using a variety of genomic assays to characterize its response to antimalarial drugs and other environmental stresses using patient samples and animal models. Their studies also include genomic analyses of the host response to infection and of the Anopheles mosquitoes that transmit the parasites. In particular, his lab has generated the first RNA-seq data for Plasmodium vivax generated directly from patient samples, as well as the first single-cell RNA-seq data for this organism. They have recently expanded these activities to characterize other Plasmodium stages and species.