Pierre LEBLOND

**Bio** I received my PhD in molecular genetics in 1990 under the supervision of Prof. Bernard Decaris at Université Henri Poincaré in Nancy. Then, I did my military service (1 yr) as a scientist in the lab of Profs. I. Gresser and M. Tovey at Hôpital Paul Brousse (CNRS, Villejuif). Afterwards, I joined for 2 years Pr. J. Cullum at Kaiserslautern (Germany) thanks to EMBO and European Community fellowships. I was appointed to the position of Maître de Conférences at Université Henri Poincaré and was granted a professorship in 1995. Since then, I lead a research team; today named *Streptomyces Adaptation*, StrAda. In the past, I was director of the research unit from 2007 to 2018 (co-director from 2001 to 2007). At the national level, I sat at the National University Committee (CNU 65, cellular biology, 3 terms between 2004 and 2018). I sat in several instances of the Université de Lorraine (executive board, cluster council, faculty council). I was vice-president UL in charge of technology transfer in 2017-18, and currently project manager for the construction of a research building at the Faculty of Sciences. **Research** The guiding thread of all my research is to better understand the molecular mechanisms of bacterial genome evolution. Early in my career, I met *Streptomyces* and it became my pet bacteria. I developed methods (pulsed-field gel electrophoresis) and applied approaches (genome mapping, comparative genomics, genome mining) to study genome structure, organization and dynamics. Notably, I focused on recombination mechanisms shaping the genome (homologous and illegitimate recombination). Hence, these soil bacteria have to face variable environmental (biotic and abiotic parameters) conditions. They show an extraordinary capacity to adapt and to evolve through horizontal gene transfer. We currently study this dynamic in natural populations of *Streptomyces* (isolated from grains of forest soil) in terms of acquisition and diversification of new genes (secondary metabolite gene clusters, nutriment utilization, mobile genetic elements). **Teaching** I am teaching since 1989 in the field of genetics and microbiology in undergraduate and graduate courses. I continuously managed University programs; from 1995 to 2018 Licence de Biologie, Maîtrise de Génétique Moléculaire et Cellulaire, DESS Ressources Génomiques et Traitements Informatiques, Master de Microbiologie, Master Biotechnologies, Microbiologie, Aliment, Nutrition ; and founded several of them: DESS RGTI (2001), Master de Microbiologie (2008). I also contributed to the creation of the Cursus Master of Engineering (CMI ‘Biologie Santé Environnement’) in 2010 and supervised the cursus at its opening in 2012. Since 2018, I supervise the RIM (Research in Microbiology) orientation of the Master Microbiology (M2), a project-driven course in the omics field with full immersion in research laboratories. **Contact** E-mail : <pierre.leblond@univ-lorraine.fr> Téléphone : +33 (0)3 72 74 51 43 IdeHAL **pierre-leblond**