The Daskalov lab was established in 2023 at ImmunoConcEpT (UMR 5164, CNRS and University of Bordeaux), with the support of an ATIP-Avenir grant from the CNRS. Asen Daskalov completed his PhD in Bordeaux in the laboratory of Sven Saupe, followed by postdoctoral work at the University of California, Berkeley, with N. Louise Glass, and a group leader position at the Zhejiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences in Hangzhou.

We study how fungi distinguish self from non-self and the regulated cell death that follows. Working mainly with Podospora anserina and Neurospora crassa, we investigate the gene families underlying these processes, which are evolutionarily related to innate immunity genes across plants, animals and bacteria. Work carried out over the past decade, in Bordeaux and at Berkeley, has uncovered several links between fungal cell death determinants and the mammalian programs of necroptosis and pyroptosis, and led to the proposal that fungi possess a complex and still uncharacterized immune system.

Our broader interest is in fungal biotic interactions and what they reveal about the evolution of immunity. The lab works across genetics, molecular biology, biochemistry, genomics and structural approaches, and collaborates widely in France and abroad.