About the IRD in Laos

Éric Deharo is the current IRD representative in Laos. He is a pharmacist (Faculty of Pharmacy, Bordeaux) and obtained a post-graduate doctorate on infectious diseases in 1995 at the University of Lille 2 in co-supervision with the Muséum national d’Histoire naturelle. He then joined the IRD where he worked on traditional pharmacopoeias in Bolivia, French Guiana, Peru and Laos. He also set up experimental pharmacology laboratories. He has been awarded with the Altran Foundation prize and the IRD innovation prize. He participated in the description of a particular liver cancer in Peru and his research now focuses on the risk factors responsible for the emergence of liver cancer (in particular viral hepatitis). He is a project leader in the frame of the European Marie Sklodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) - Research and Innovation Staff Exchange - (RISE) grant agreement N° 823935. He also coordinates the OHSEA regional project.

And has produced video clips of the projects he is involved in:

• Amphibians and reptiles
• Elephants
• Crickets

Find his publications here: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5664-9517

Contact: Éric Deharo

Christian Hartmann est pédologue, Chargé de recherche au sein de l’UMR iEES-Paris. Ses recherches portent sur les mécanismes de compaction des sols cultivés tropicaux et des techniques de réhabilitation par des moyens mécaniques et travers d’apport de compost afin de stimuler l’activité de bioturbation de la macrofaune du sol (vers de terre, termites). Il a également largement participé aux actions de formation et de transfert des compétences. Il a notamment co-dirigé une Jeune Équipe Associée à l’IRD (JEAI) pour soutenir la collaboration entre les facultés d’agriculture de la National University of Laos (NUOL) et de la Khon Kaen University, Thaïlande (KKU), co-dirigé un Projet Structurant de Formation (PSF) qui associe l’Université de Paris Est-Créteil (UPEC) à NUOL et à l’IRD, et dispenser des formations destinées aux chercheurs comme aux étudiants sur le contrôle de qualité au laboratoire, les statistiques pour les comparaisons inter-laboratoires, la physique des sols, etc..

Il s’est également investi dans le Partenariat Mondial sur les Sols (Global Soil Partnership) de la FAO en participant à la mise en place du réseau mondial de laboratoire, le Global Soil Laboratory Network (GLOSOLAN) pour lequel il participe actuellement au Comité de pilotage.  En Asie du Sud-est, il va mettre en place un réseau de laboratoires de physique du sol dans le cadre du Groupe De Recherche International (GDRI) en vue de faire un état des lieux du niveau de compaction des sols cultivés et proposer des techniques de réhabilitation au travers d’une démarche participative qui associe des ONG et des organisations paysannes.

Avec Norbert Silvera, il s’est investi dans la mise en route de stations d’acquisition à bas coût afin de collecter des données environnementales qui peuvent servir d’aide à la décision des agriculteurs (élevage de crickets, production de compost, mesure de la réserve utile en eau des sols) mais qui permettent aussi d’alimenter des banques de données indispensables pour mieux décrire et prévoir les évolutions dans un contexte de changement climatique.

Ses publications peuvent être consultées sur https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1172-981X

Contact: Christian Hartmann

Sabrina Locatelli is a biologist by training. Her research aims at understanding the population dynamics and genetic diversity of pathogens in order to identify mechanisms that facilitate the emergence and spread of animal diseases affecting human populations living in tropical regions of Africa and Asia.

She holds an MSc in Immunology from the University of Lausanne (CH) and an MSc in Primate Conservation from Oxford Brookes University (UK). She obtained her PhD in Public Health and Epidemiology at the University of Basel/Swiss Tropical Institute and a postdoctoral fellowship in Population Genetics at the University at Albany, New York (USA). She has a strong background in molecular biology and several years of field experience in Cameroon, DRC and Côte d'Ivoire.

She joined IRD in 2011 in the TransVIHMI unit where she continued to study retroviruses (SIV, PTLV), opportunistic diseases (Cryptosporidia and Microsporidia) and neglected tropical diseases (filariae and geohelminths) at the human/non-human primate interface.

Within MIVEGEC since July 2020 and in Laos since August 2021, she is involved in several One-Health projects. She coordinates, in the field, the monitoring of COVID-19 progression, retrospectively and prospectively, in all potential actors of SARS-CoV-2 circulation, including humans, domestic animals and wildlife ANRS projects COV20-LACOVISS and ANR-20-COV1-0002-0068-DISCOVER). She also participates in the construction of the CIREN (International Center for Environmental Research in Nakaï). Together with Eric Deharo, she is co-leader of an integrated conservation and development project with the objective of setting up a sustainable cricket breeding activity by and for disadvantaged women in Vientiane province. Since early 2022, Sabrina Locatelli and Nicole Ngo-Giang-Huong have been coordinating, together with Whoottichai Kamduang, the LMI PRESTO (PRotect-dEtect-STOp) "Understanding and Mitigating Zoonotic Spillovers in Declining Biodiversity Hot-Spots in Southeast Asia". The LMI PRESTO is a multidisciplinary collaboration bringing together experts and researchers from France, Laos and Thailand sharing the common goal of preventing and combating emerging infectious diseases in the Greater Mekong Region.

In January 2022, Sabrina Locatelli also obtained funding for two projects (ONENAKAI and ELAOS) submitted in the framework of the OHSEA (One Health in South East Asia) call sponsored by the Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs, the Fonds de Solidarité pour les Projets Innovants (FSPI) program, the IRD, and the CNRS. These are collaborative projects whose objective is to understand the mechanisms of emerging or re-emerging diseases, in order to prevent them.

For more information on her latest publications:  ID ORCID : 0000-0002-1133-0561

Contact: Sabrina Locatelli

Ingénieur de recherche dans l’UMR iEES Paris (Institut d’Ecologie et des Sciences de l’Environnement de Paris), Anne Pando participe au réseau M-TROPICS (Multiscale Tropical Catchments), sur les problèmes de contaminations microbiennes des sols et de l’eau par Escherichia coli, contaminant fécal des cours d’eau, et Burkholeria pseudomallei, agent de la mélioïdose, maladie endémique en Asie du Sud-Est mortelle dans 50 à 60 % des cas.

Recrutée à l’IRD en 1990 en phytopathologie, elle s’intéresse ensuite aux interactions sol-plante-vers de terre. Elle travaille aujourd’hui plus particulièrement en microbiologie de sols.

Affectée au Laos depuis 2018, elle s’intéresse à la caractérisation des déterminants environnementaux de bactéries pathogènes dans les sols et l'eau. En collaboration avec le LOMWRU (Lao-Oxford-Mahosot Wellcome Research Unit), basée au Mahosot hospital de Vientiane, elle travaille sur la mise au point méthodologique d’analyses de bactériologie moléculaire de Burkholderia pseudomalleï dans les sols.

Publications récentes :

Pongmala, K., Pierret A., Pando A., Silvera N.,Oliva P., Boithias, L., Xayyathip K., Macouin M., Rochelle-Newall E., Vongvixay A., Rattanavong S., Luangraj M., Ribolzi O. 2019. Occurrence of Burkholderia pseudomalleï along a 3 m soil profile in a paddy field of central Laos. 9th World Melioidosis Congress. 15 to 18 October 2019. Hanoi-Vietnam. (Oral)

Nakhle P., et al. 2021. "Effects of hydrological regime and land use on in-stream Escherichia coli concentration in the Mekong basin, Lao PDR. ScientificReports,11:3460. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41590-021-82891-0

Boithias L., et al.  2021. Dataset from the Multiscale TROPIcal CatchmentS critical zone observatory M-TROPICS II: land use, hydrology and sediment production monitoring in Houay Pano, northern Lao PDR. Hydrological Processes- https://doi.org/10.1002/hyp.14126

Nakhle  P., et al. 2021- Decay rate of Escherichia coli in a mountainous tropical headwater wetland. Water,13, 2068. https://doi.org/10.3390/w13152068

Contact: Anne Pando

Karine Peyronnie est géographe, chargée de recherche à l’IRD depuis 2000 et membre de l’unité mixte de recherche PRODIG - Pôle de Recherche pour l'Organisation et la Diffusion de l'Information Géographique.

Elle est spécialiste des études urbaines sur le Laos (gouvernance, métropolisation). Ses recherches actuelles sont principalement consacrées à la conception des interventions urbaines.  Accueillie à la faculté d’architecture de l’Université Nationale du Laos, elle s’intéresse aux effets des principes de la « ville verte » sur la production urbaine dans les principales villes laotiennes (septembre 2021 - août 2024).

Retrouvez ses publications ici : https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9754-161X

Contact: Karine Peyronnie

Alain Pierret is a researcher at UMR iEES-Paris. He has more than 25 years of interdisciplinary experience at the crossroads of soil science, hydrology, microbiology and archaeology. After working in Australia for CSIRO, Land & Water, from 1997 to 2003, he joined IRD in 2004.

He has been working in Laos since 2005 where he has coordinated several research projects (ANR, CNRS/INSU in particular) as well as a Critical Zone Observatory (M-TROPICS). From 2017 to 2021, Alain coordinated, in partnership with Dr Nivong Sipaseuth, Director General of DALaM (Laos), the International Joint Laboratory "Impacts of rapid Land Use Changes on Soil Ecosystem Services" - LUSES.

Alain has published over 90 scientific papers and book chapters, supervised more than 25 students including several PhD students and held editorial responsibilities for the journals Plant and Soil and Geoderma. His research focuses on the interactions between land use and biogeochemical cycles in the Critical Zone and their impact on soil ecosystem services associated with the sustainability of agroecosystems and human health.

Find his publications here: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3447-3434

Contact: Alain Pierret

Norbert Silvera is an electronics engineer with 39 years of experience at IRD. It develops, in collaboration with agronomists, hydrologists and soil scientists, hydro-sedimentary monitoring systems for small catchment areas. It also trains colleagues, partners and local students in the design, testing and maintenance of electronics dedicated to environmental measurements.

Norbert participates in the publication of specialized articles on the impacts of land use changes, soil erosion and hydrology. In particular, he has filed international patents for several original systems for measuring the water level, speed and flow of mid-mountain streams.

Contact: Norbert Silvera

Franck T. Wieringa is a medical doctor and nutritionist, working at IRD since 2007. He is attached to the UMR QualiSud, of which he is also a Deputy Director.

For more than 25 years, he has worked on all aspects of malnutrition, especially in Southeast Asia, where he was based in Indonesia from 1996 to 2007, in Vietnam from 2008 to 2012 and in Cambodia from 2012 to 2016. He is the leader of a European project (INSIDER, 2019-2022) within the 2FAS framework, which aims to improve the integration of programs addressing micronutrient malnutrition in West Africa, and he is co-PI of 2 projects in Indonesia on the treatment of malnutrition (2019-2023).

His current research focuses on 3 areas:

• Treatment and prevention of acute malnutrition through local solutions
• Micronutrient deficiencies: prevalence and strategies
• Determinants of growth retardation and stunting

Based in Laos since September 2021, one of his projects is the development of a local ready-to-use food for the treatment of severe acute malnutrition (SAM).

He has published over 120 papers in international journals, and supervised over fifteen doctoral students.

Find his latest publications here: ID ORCHID: 0000-0002-6010-355X

Contact: Frank T. Wieringa