Complex mixtures
In analytical chemistry, the aim is to develop methods combining chromatography and mass spectrometry for the characterization of compounds present in matrices of varying natures (water, fruit, organic matter, cream, etc.) in order to (1) identify new emerging compounds present in the environment, (2) describe and improve our knowledge of the understanding of certain biological mechanisms. This theme has been strengthened since September 2023 by the recruitment of Covadonga Lucas-Torres, who works on NMR characterization of metabolites, and Karim Hammad, who looks after the NMR platform.
Our activities are divided into different applications:
Photochemistry and the environment
Work on characterizing the degradation products of organic pollutants (pesticides, drugs, care products, etc.) present in the environment using LC/GC-MS/MS couplings and model approaches was initiated by the team several years ago. The causes of degradation can be multiple (water treatment: photolysis, ozonolysis, actions of microorganisms, etc.), and the first studies involved modeling degradation conditions on reference molecules in order to understand the mechanisms involved in degradation. Degradation pathways are proposed on the basis of mass spectrometry knowledge acquired during these years of research in the field. This has enabled us to demonstrate the environmental toxicity of some of these compounds through in-vitro studies on the marine bacterium vibrio fisheri, and also to estimate their toxicity to mammals through in-silico QSAR studies.