From the beginning of her scientific training, Bérénice Costes has been fascinated by the interactions between pathogens and their hosts, and in particular by the mechanisms put to work by a virus to evade its host’s immune response. After her degree in Biological Sciences Bérénice Costes launched herself into a doctoral thesis under the supervision of Professor Alain Vanderplasschen, who directs the Laboratory of Immunology and Vaccinology in the ULg’s Faculty of Veterinary Medicine. Over the course of her thesis, she concentrated on the effect of a feline herpes virus Type 1 glycoprotein on a cat’s immune system. At the end of her thesis she decided with Professor Vanderplasschen to study the carp’s infection by the Koï Herpes Virus (KHV), from both a basic research and an applied point of view. It was in the context of her post-doctoral work that the young researcher and Alain Vanderplasschen succeeded in cloning the KHV genome in the form of an infectious artificial bacterial chromosome and to produce from it an effective vaccine in 2008. In 2009 they discovered that this virus did not infect carp through their gills but indeed through their skin. Two discoveries which have earned them the cover of the world’s major journal in the field of virology: The Journal of Virology.

Selection of publications

COSTES B., STALIN RAJ V., MICHEL B., FOURNIER G., THIRION M., GILLET L., MAST J., LIEFFRIG F., BREMONT M. and VANDERPLASSCHEN A., The major portal of entry of koi herpesvirus in cyprinus carpio is the skin, J Virol (2009), 83 (7), 2819-2830

COSTES B., FOURNIER G., MICHEL B., DEFORGE C., STALIN RAJ V., DEWALS B., GILLET L., DRION P., BODY A., SCHYNTS F., LIEFFRIG F. and VANDERPLASSCHEN A., Cloning of the Koi Herpesvirus Genome as an Infectious Bacterial Artificial Chromosome Demonstrates That Disruption of the Thymidine Kinase Locus Induces Partial Attenuation in Cyprinus carpio koi, J Virol (2008), 82 (10), 4955-4964

MACHIELS B., GILLET L., DO NASCIMENTO BRITO S., DRION P., DEFORGE C., NIZET Y., GIANELLO P., BONA C., COSTES B., MARKINE-GORIAYNOFF N., VANDERPLASSCHEN A., Natural antibody complement dependent neutralization of bovine herpesvirus 4 by human serum, Microbes and infection (2007), 9, 1530-1537

BOUDRY, COSTES B., FOURNIER G., DEWALS B., VANDERPLASSCHEN A., Les homologues viraux des récepteurs cellulaires couplés aux protéines, G. Virologie (2007), 11(6), 457-470

COSTES B., VAN DEN BRANDE A., THIRY E., VANDERPLASSCHEN A., L'herpèsvirus félin 1, l'agent de la rhinotrachéite virale féline, Les annales de Méd Vet (2007), 151, 61-78

COSTES B., THIRION M., DEWALS B., MAST J., ACKERMANN M., MARKINE-GORIAYNOFF N.,GILLET L. and VANDERPLASSCHEN A., Felid herpesvirus 1 glycoprotein G is a structural protein that mediates the binding of chemokines on the viral envelope, Microbes and infections (2006), 8, 2657-2667