Lionel Navarro has more than 20 years of experience studying host-pathogen interactions, innate immunity, epigenetics and RNA silencing. His research group has pioneered the role and regulation of intracellular and extracellular small RNAs in host-bacteria interactions, the identification and characterization of bacterial RNA suppressors, and the transcriptional control of immune-responsive genes by active DNA demethylation.
He has founded several spin-off companies, developing disruptive technologies to control infectious diseases of plants, animals and humans. He is currently Director of Research at the Center National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), in France, and group leader at the Institut de l’ Ecole Normale Supérieure (IBENS).