Oral and poster presentation prizes awarded during the 2021 FrenchBIC Meeting

Cheriehan Hessin received her Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from Sorbonne University in Paris with a specialization in Molecular and Supramolecular Chemistry. She is currently a PhD student at Strasbourg University, working on exploiting the control over the ordering of redox potentials in several redox-active ligand-based systems, under the guidance of Prof. Marine Desage-El Murr (OMECA lab) and Prof. Sylvie Choua (POMAM lab). She presented an oral communication entitled “controlling the ordering of potentials to access high-valent nickel species”.

Robin Ramos is a 3rd year PhD student working at the interface between chemistry and biology. His work focuses on the synthesis and characterization of half-sandwich Iridium(III) complexes in the lab of Dr. Michèle Salmain (IPCM team Chembio, Sorbonne Université), and the study of their intracellular behavior and their toxicity as potential chemotherapies under the supervision of Pr. Joelle Sobczak-Thépot (CRSA, Hôpital Saint Antoine Sorbonne Université).

Claudio Righetti is PhD student in the laboratory of molecular science Institute (iSm2 – BiosCiences) at the University of Marseille, under the supervision of Thierry Tron and Jalila Simaan. He works on artificial photosystems based on metalloenzymes. He presented an oral communication entitled “Photocatalytic system for olefin oxidation based on laccase, a renewable dioxygen dependent oxidoreductase”.

Alexandre Uzel is a third year PhD student at the BIP Laboratory (Bioénergétique et Ingénierie des Protéines) in Marseille. His research work since the 1st October 2018 consist in the biophysical and biochemical study of two new Formate DeHydrogenases (FDHs) found in the soil bacterium Bacillus subtilis in the context of CO2 valorization. The core of his subject is the EPR characterization of these two enzymes since they are harboring one molybdenum cofactor, five FeS clusters and one menaquinone as final electron acceptor. He is now interested in how those FDHs are involved in B. subtilis metabolism.

Agnideep Das is a 3rd year PhD student in the OMECA (Objets, MEtaux et CAtalyse) lab at University of Strasbourg, under the supervision of Prof. Marine Desage-El Murr. His thesis work is focused on synthesis, characterizations and catalytic applications of flavin based hybrid redox-active ligands and their 3d metal complexes. He presented a poster at FrenchBIC 2021 annual meeting, entitled as ‘hybrid redox-active catechol-alloxazine ligands and nickel: multimetallic complexes for electron transfer catalysis’.

Andrea Fasano is an Italian PhD student in the BIP (Bioénergétique et Ingénierie des Protéines) laboratories in Marseille, supervised by Prof. Christophe Leger. He studied biotechnology in the Universities of Bologna and Padova (Italy). Now his PhD project focuses on electrochemical studies of hydrogenases, metallo-enzymes able to catalyse both hydrogen oxidation and evolution. He presented a poster entitled “Reversible or irreversible catalysis of H+/H2 conversion by FeFe hydrogenases”, in which the catalytic response of a new FeFe-hydrogenase has been investigated to better understand the reasons behind (ir)reversibility in molecular catalysts. This work was published in the J. Am. Chem. Soc. (10.1021/jacs.1c09554).

Maxime Naudé is a PhD student in the Biometals and Biological Chemistry laboratory (BCB) under the supervision of Pr. Peter Faller and Dr. Vincent Lebrun. His research focuses on the design of artificial metalloenzymes (ArMs) based on the self-assembly of peptidic bricks. He presented a poster entitled DE NOVO design and synthesis of γ-carbonic anhydrase mimics.

Edwyn Remadna is a doctoral student at the Paris Institute of Molecular Chemistry (IPCM) within the ChemBio team and within the T3S team at the University of Paris. He works under the supervision of Professor Serge Thorimbert (IPCM, ChemBio), Doctor Benoît Bertrand (CNRS, IPCM, ChemBio) and Doctor Patricia Forgez (INSERM, T3S). He presented a poster entitled “New Organometallic gold (III) complexes based on (C^C) chelates and NHC ligands: synthesis and anticancer investigations.” After having characterized the different complexes, the anti-cancer activity was tested on different cancer cell lines (breast, lung). The study on potential targets is under study.