Francois Criscuolo studies aging, a very complex and multi-factorial process that is largely variable, both at the inter-specific and at the inter-individual level. As head of the Molecular Biology Laboratory, he mainly focuses on telomere erosion a cellular ageing process largely conserved over animals. Using this tool, the main goal of his research is to contribute to a better understanding of the origin of the great diversity of ageing rates that results from evolution, by trying to uncover the mechanisms (i.e. molecular, cellular and physiological) that shape the life-history trade-offs in different environments and social organizations.
 
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Gildas Lemonnier is an engineer specialized in scientific field missions, including data collection and data preparation.
 
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Carsten Schradin wants to understand how animals can cope with a changing world via behavioural and physiological flexibility, which are a product of evolution. He is especially interested in how his study organism, African striped mice (Rhabdomys pumilio), can cope with droughts, which are predicted to increase in future in severity and frequency due to climate change.
 
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Cédric Sueur is working on social networking and decision-making in animal groups. He aims to understand how intrinsic characteristics such as age, stress, physiology or nutrient requirements impact the social centrality of individuals and at an upper-level, the social network. His subjects are going from insects (ants and fruitflies) to primates including humans. Cédric Sueur focuses his research on diffusion of information and disease and evolution of social networks using empirical observations, behavioural experiments and modelling.
 
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Vincent A. Viblanc is interested in understanding the evolution of group living and how social x genetic influences shape individual phenotype. He uses both life history and experimental approaches in the wild as complementary frameworks to assess the bidirectional links between social environments, individual phenotype and fitness (including trans-generational consequences). His work is carried out on a range of group living vertebrates including birds (penguins, zebra finches), mammals (ground squirrels) and fish (gilt-head seabream, orbicular batfish).
 
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Sandrine Zahn is presently managing several innovative methodological projects on ageing measurements. She is an engineer in molecular biology, with a strong background in PCR and qPCR methodology which she specifically adapted at the DEPE for several purposes such as telomere length amplification, gene expression and molecular sexing. She is in charge of the Molecular Biology Laboratory, under the supervision of F Criscuolo.
 
Molecular Biology Laboratory Page : Biologie moléculaire

F. Stephen Dobson is interested in the evolution of reproductive traits, including mating characteristics like multiple paternity and trade-offs of offspring investments by parents.
 
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