Christophe Sola

Christophe Sola is a Permanent Researcher at University Paris-Saclay, France, affiliated with the Institute for Integrative Biology of the Cell and the EVREST team within the Infectious Agents and Public Health unit (IAME). His research focuses on the molecular epidemiology and genetics of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, with particular expertise in strain typing methods and evolutionary analysis across global populations.

Dr. Sola's research interests span several key areas in tuberculosis research:

• Molecular epidemiology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis lineages
• Development and application of spoligotyping methods using Luminex technology
• CRISPR-based analysis of TB strains through tools like CRISPRbuilder-TB
• Genetic diversity and evolution of TB lineages across geographical regions
• Historical spread patterns of tuberculosis, including connections to the slave trade
• Drug resistance mechanisms and detection in Mycobacterium tuberculosis

His publication record demonstrates consistent contributions to understanding TB transmission across five continents, with particular focus on connections between African, Asian, and American strains. Recent work has examined tuberculosis trends in Paris hotspots, strain diversity in Lebanon, Papua New Guinea, and Brazil, revealing significant findings such as the shared SIT129 spoligotype between Pará/Brazil and Malawi/Mozambique regions, suggesting historical transmission routes.

Dr. Sola has published extensively in high-impact journals including Nature Genetics, PLoS Computational Biology, Emerging Infectious Diseases, and Infection, Genetics and Evolution. His methodological papers on spoligotyping and CRISPR analysis have been particularly influential in standardizing TB strain identification techniques used in laboratories worldwide.

As a researcher, Dr. Sola maintains extensive international collaborations across multiple continents, working with institutions in Lebanon, Brazil, Madagascar, Peru, Mozambique, and Papua New Guinea. These collaborations focus on comparative studies of TB strains to understand global transmission patterns, evolutionary history, and the development of region-specific diagnostic approaches. His EVREST team at University Paris-Saclay serves as the central hub for this international research network focused on tuberculosis genetics and epidemiology.