Hugo Vaysset, Ph.D.

Hugo Vaysset is a postdoctoral researcher in Sam Sternberg’s laboratory at Columbia University. He completed his Ph.D. in evolutionary genomics at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, France, under the supervision of Aude Bernheim and Pascal Hersen. Hugo is broadly interested in tracing ancient evolutionary connections between gene families across bacteria, archaea, and eukaryotes to understand the evolution of life at the broadest timescales and guide functional discovery through systematic mining of large biological sequence databases.

Vaysset’s graduate work notably involved leveraging remote evolutionary connections to uncover novel immune genes across the tree of life. His research on eukaryotic homologs of bacterial antiviral defense systems led to the discovery of a previously uncharacterized gene that participates in innate immunity in humans. In his postdoctoral research, Hugo studies exaptation: an evolutionary mechanism through which ancient traits are repurposed toward novel functions. More precisely, Vaysset is interested in how selfish DNA elements — genomic sequences that selfishly replicate within genomes without benefiting their hosts — have been coopted by cellular organisms throughout evolution. By tracing how molecular machinery originally encoded by selfish elements has been exapted, he aims to reveal how these genetic parasites have also served as a major source of functional innovation, contributing essential biological functions to their cellular hosts.