Pascal Gagneux is an evolutionary biologist interested in primate molecular diversity. He is curious about the evolutionary mechanisms responsible for its generation and maintenance, its potential roles in protecting populations from pathogens as well as potential consequences for reproductive compatibility.


Research Interests
Causes and Consequences of Glycan Evolution 

Glycosylation, the post-translational modification of proteins and lipids with oligosaccharide chains (glycans), plays many roles throughout life history. These include cellular recognition phenomena during fertilization, development, infection, immune regulation, and cancer. Despite the existence of ubiquitous variation in glycans between species, between individuals of the same species, and even between different cell types of the same organism, there is only limited understanding about the evolutionary forces shaping such variation and the role of this variation in cellular recognition processes in human health and disease.

As a paradigm of cellular recognition I currently study the role of mammalian sperm surface glycans. Mammalian reproduction requires internal fertilization, necessitating the survival of foreign cells (sperm) within the female until fertilization. This process shares many aspects with successful infection. Understanding how sperm cells interact with the female via their surface glycans, prompting female tolerance and allowing fertilization, promises new understanding of cellular recognition mechanisms and insights into the molecular basis of reproductive incompatibility.