Diplôme d'Ingénieur, 2001
Ecole Centrale Paris

My research interest is in exocellular polysaccharide (EPS) producing extremophiles. Many extremophilic archaea and bacteria coat themselves in layers of secreted polysaccharide-rich "slime", thus forming so-called biofilms that keep the colonies together and also possibly contribute to protecting the organisms (in the case of the acidophiles). As the conditions many of these organisms live include temperatures up to 100° C and pH down to 0, we expect these EPS to have remarkable physical and rheological properties. They should therefore have potentially important applications in several industrial sectors, including food processing, pharmaceutical formulation and the petroleum industry.

My first task is going to be growing such organisms in the lab, in conditions that optimize the production and secretion of EPS. Subsequently, we are going to develop methods to purify the EPS. The physical properties of the polysaccharide, including number- and weight-averaged molecular mass, dispersity, gyration and hydrodynamic radiuses and intrinsic viscosity, will be determined through a series of assays, the main tools being size-exclusion chromatography and static and dynamic light scattering.