Professor Aziz Heddi is a full professor at INSA Lyon and team leader at the laboratory ‘Biologie Fonctionnelle, Insectes et Interactions’ (BF2i). He has accomplished his undergraduate studies at the University Mohammed I (Oujda) on General Biology and Geology, then his first-year master’s degree at the University Mohammed V (Rabat) on Plant Biology. He moved to Lyon on 1986 to perform his PhD program under the supervision of Pr. Paul Nardon, whom was among the founders of the International Symbiosis Society (ISS).

During his PhD, Pr A. Heddi looked at the impact of symbiotic bacteria on insect mitochondrial energetic metabolism. He has then experienced postdoctoral trainings between 1990 and 1994. During that period, which was mainly held in Douglas C. Wallace Lab at Emory School of Medicine (Atlanta), he handled vertebrate models, including Human, and entered a new research area on Human Genetic Diseases. He joined the BF2i Lab in 1994 as an Assistant Professor. He heads the team "Symbiosis and Immune Signaling" (SymSIm) from 1998, and he chaired BF2i Lab between 2011 and 2020. His team was initially interested on insect endosymbiosis and its impact on animal physiology and evolution. He then investigated the molecular dialogue between symbiotic partners by using diversified experimental approaches, including cell imaging, RNA interference, molecular and structural biology, and genomics and transcriptomics. His team is among the pioneers in this field and has succeeded at identifying key immune genes and pathways involved in endosymbiont dynamics control and host immune homeostasis.

Report on the 10th congress of the ISS, held in Lyon on 25-29 July 2022.

Heddi, A., Selosse, MA. & Richardson, D. Introduction to the proceedings of the 10th International Symbiosis Congress (Lyon, France). Symbiosis (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13199-023-00898-9