ENS de Lyon extends its warmest congratulations to Lucie Étienne, Research Director at CIRI – International Research Center in Infectious Diseases (CNRS/ ENS de Lyon / INSERM / Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 / Hospices Civils de Lyon / Université Jean Monnet – Saint-Étienne). On December 9, 2025, she was awarded an ERC Consolidator Grant for the FUNEVO project – Functional Evolution of the cell-autonomous innate immunity in mammals.

FUNEVO: Better understanding the mechanisms of immunity through genomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic innovations

“Our innate immune system is one of the first lines of defense against pathogens. It acts inside cells thanks to immune proteins, including those activated by the interferon pathway. However, viruses evolve rapidly and circumvent these defenses, leading to a veritable arms race between hosts and pathogens,” explains Lucie Étienne. “Recent work has revealed that, in certain bats, immune genes have been duplicated and ‘remodeled,’ particularly through changes in their protein domains. These modifications appear to confer a major advantage against viruses. Researchers therefore suggest that gene duplication and domain reorganization are more important mechanisms than previously thought in the evolution of mammalian immunity.”

Basically, the ERC FUNEVO project is all about figuring out how these genomic, transcriptomic, and protein innovations came about, how they work, and how they help mammals deal with viruses that are always changing. By combining genomics, evolutionary biology, structure prediction, and experimental testing of cellular and antiviral activities, the project will also identify new immune genes and reveal the evolutionary mechanisms that have enabled the emergence of these new functions. These discoveries will shed light on the evolutionary history of our immunity and pave the way for new preventive and therapeutic approaches, inspired by natural mechanisms, against infections, zoonoses, and autoimmune diseases.

Lucie Étienne, between evolution, virology, and immunology

Lucie Étienne's research combines approaches from evolution, virology, and immunology to study the diversification of the innate immune system, particularly in response to viruses, as well as the impact on viral emergence. After completing a PhD in molecular epidemiology and virology (2008-2011) at the University of Montpellier, she joined Michael Emerman's team at Fred Hutch in Seattle, USA, as a postdoctoral researcher.

Her work, combining phylogenetics and molecular virology, has notably highlighted the evolutionary mechanisms behind HIV. Recruited by the CNRS as a Research Fellow in 2015, then Research Director in 2023, she leads a team on the “Evolution of virus-host interactions and impacts on inter-species transmission” within the LP2L at the International Research Center in Infectious Diseases (CIRI), on the campus of the École Normale Supérieure de Lyon.

More info on the CNRS website