Team leader

Dr. Sandrine Ollagnier-de Choudens Director of research at the CNRS Laboratoire Chimie et Biologie des Métaux CEA-Grenoble 17 avenue des Martyrs 38 054 Grenoble Cedex 09 Phone: (33) 4 38 78 91 22 Biography

Secretary
Nathalie Atta
Laboratoire Chimie et Biologie des Métaux
CEA-Grenoble
17 avenue des Martyrs
38 054 Grenoble Cedex 09
Phone: (33) 4 38 78 91 02
Fax: (33) 4 38 78 91 24


Presentation

Our research team is made up of bioinorganic biochemists, a chemist and a crystallographer interested in the understanding of the molecular structure and the chemical reactivity of complex biological systems containing metal ions. Our metal of interest is Iron (Fe), found in iron-sulfur (Fe-S) clusters, hemes and mono and bi-nuclears non-heme iron centers, and we investigate mechanisms of iron-containing proteins as well as the assembly of their metallic site (Fe-S) as well as iron metalloregulators that control gene expression related to iron. More  recently, our research has expanded to include sulfur-active species, which may play regulatory, protective, and catalytic roles. The team's research projects lie at the interface of chemistry and biology, both conceptually and methodologically. Many of our projects have applications in healthcare (discovery and synthesis of new antimicrobial agents), as well as in the energy and environmental sectors (combating global warming, hydrogen production, plastic valorization).
We employ biochemical, spectroscopic, crystallographic, and chemical methods to study our systems. Whenever possible, we collaborate with biologists and microbiologists to understand the biological processes we are interested in, ranging from in vitro to in vivo studies.

Most experiments are carried out in a controlled atmosphere, using gloveboxes for anaerobic protein purification, enzymatic assays, spectroscopic studies (UV-visible absorption), protein-protein interaction analyses (BLI device) and sample preparation for analysis by EPR, Mössbauer and EXAFS spectroscopies. Protein crystallization can also be performed under anaerobic conditions within the BioCat team, which manages a crystallogenesis and crystallography platform dedicated to metalloproteins.


The team's Research is therefore structured around five main themes with applications in health, environment and energy fields

     Mechanism of Fe- and Fe-S containing proteins
     Artificial Metalloenzymes for Activation of Small Molecules
     Biogenesis of Fe-S clusters, sulfur metabolism and Fe homeostasis
     Antimicrobials
     Up-cycling of polyolefin plastics

Specialized techniques

These research topics rely on use of a series of techniques and experimental skills gathered by the complementary expertise of the member of the team.


FrenchBIC
Our team is part of the FrenchBIC, a CNRS network of about 200 French researchers from 25 research units, who work on all aspects of bioinorganic chemistry / metals in biology.
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