Dr Gantier was trained as a biological engineer in one of France’s elite schools, l’Université de Technologie de Compiegne, between 1998 and 2002. He completed his 3-year PhD on “The roles of double-stranded RNAs in mammalian cells” at University College Dublin (Ireland), in early 2006, and was recruited to join the laboratory of Prof. Bryan Williams in the Monash Institute of Medical Research (now Hudson Institute), where he was recently promoted to the role of group leader and received an ARC Future Fellowship. His work specialises in the relationship between nucleic acids and innate immunity.