François Chassagne

I am currently a research scientist at the French National Research Institute for Sustainable Development (IRD) and I work within the UMR 152 PharmaDev research unit in Noumea (New Caledonia). I hold a doctorate in pharmacy (Paris Cité University) as well as a PhD in biology, medicine and health (Toulouse University), and I hold the French “Habilitation to Direct Research” (HDR), an accreditation to supervise doctoral research.
I specialize in ethnopharmacology, that is, the scientific study and evaluation of traditional medicines. My work has focused on traditional medical systems in Southeast Asia (Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam), Africa (Benin), and the Indo-Pacific region (Mayotte, New Caledonia, French Polynesia, Vanuatu).
My current projects concern the study of traditional medicine from the Pacific, especially New Caledonia and French Polynesia. My research topics focus primarily on infectious diseases and I also develop new pharmacological study models using the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster.
I serve as a vice-president of the French Society of Ethnopharmacology (SFE) and as board member of the AFERP (French-speaking Association for the Teaching and Research in Pharmacognosy). In 2020, I received the Young Researcher Award from the Foundation for Research on Biodiversity (FRB).
I am an associate editor for the scientific journal Journal of Ethnopharmacology and Frontiers in Pharmacology, in the Ethnopharmacology section, and I act as a reviewer for more than ten scientific journals. So far, I have published more than 45 scientific articles and book chapters.