Oral and poster presentation prizes awarded during the 2026 FrenchBIC Meeting
2025 PhD Frenchbic prize
2026 Oral presentation prizes
Elodie Lageat (Prix communication Orale FrenchBIC)
Gaétan Ramona (Prix communication Orale Division de Chimie Physique)
Doctorante en 3ᵉ année au L2CM (UMR 7053, Université de Lorraine), je travaille sur l’étude mécanistique de candidats métallomédicaments à base de Cu(II) et Fe(II) via des systèmes modèles bpma. J’explore une stratégie de « switch » optique permettant, via l’imagerie de fluorescence, un suivi spatio-temporel et quantitatif des biotransformations en milieux biologiques complexes.
Mes résultats incluent la caractérisation des complexes Cu(II)-bpma (spectroscopies, cristallographie RX) et Fe(II)-bpma (cristallographie RX, RMN, méthode d’Evans), ainsi que l’étude photophysique (Absorbance et fluorescence) d’un ligand type bpma-BODIPY en présence ou non de Cu(II).
Gaétan Ramona is a PhD student in the eMOCA group at IPCM, working under the supervision of Pr. Marc Robert. During his master’s studies, he began exploring the electrochemical activation of small molecules. One of the key challenges in this field is achieving the direct reduction of dinitrogen to ammonia. To address this, he investigates the mechanisms underlying the electrochemical nitrogen reduction reaction (NRR) using molecular complexes, focusing in particular on protonation and reduction processes at molybdenum nitrido (Mo≡N) centers. By combining cyclic voltammetry, UV–vis spectroscopy, and NMR to monitor reaction intermediates, his research recently led to the identification of a novel mechanistic pathway for NRR employing pincer-type complexes. This work was carried out within a collaborative consortium involving the groups of Pr. Nicolas Mézailles at LHFA and Dr. Eric Clot at ICGM.
2026 Poster presentation prizes
Maria-Christina Stefanoiu (Prix Poster Chemical Science)
Sofiia Kulish (Prix Poster Dalton Transactions)
I am a first-year PhD student in Grenoble, working in the Metalloproteins Laboratory at the IBS under the supervision of Dr. Eugenio de la Mora and Dr. Yvain Nicolet. I began my studies in the Netherlands, where I earned a Bachelor’s degree in Organometallic Chemistry from the Maastricht Science Program, before moving to Grenoble to complete a Master’s in Chemistry for Life Sciences. During this time, I joined the Metalloproteins lab and continued here for my doctoral research.
My research focuses on ribosomally synthesised and post-translationally modified peptides (RiPPs), a rapidly expanding class of natural products with strong potential for antibiotic discovery. They are often shaped by radical S-adenosyl-L-methionine (rSAM) enzymes that catalyse challenging C(sp²)–C(sp³) bond formations on specific Ω1X2X3 motifs, where Ω1 is an aromatic amino acid. In particular, my work aims to understand how these bonds are formed by investigating the catalytic mechanism of rSAM enzymes and characterising their iron–sulfur clusters.
I’m a first-year PhD student at Centre de Biophysique Moléculaire (CBM) in Orléans working under the supervision of Dr. Célia Bonnet. Ever since starting my Master studies in Health Chemistry, I have been particularly intrigued by research at the intersection between Chemistry, Physics and Medical Sciences. This eventually lead me to my current PhD project, which focuses on developing new MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging)contrast agents for selective copper(II) cation detection.
In particular, we try out a new approach, based on so-called spectroscopic selectivity, where we use copper(II) cations’ own magnetic properties in order to provide probe response selectivity versus other, more abundant cations like zinc (II). We focused on a specific method of creating MR image contrast known as ParaCEST (Chemical Exchange Saturation Transfer), which shows response modification in presence of cations of interest. By finely tuning the structure of developed paramagnetic Lanthanide(III) macrocyclic probes, we hope to achieve the maximum selectivity, affinity and response efficacy of the new contrast agents.