MEB - Topic 5 | Mediterranean Institute of Oceanography

Biotechnology and instrumentation

This research aims to develop biotechnological processes involving marine microorganisms that are dedicated to both the production of green energy and highly valuable molecules and the bioremediation of environments that are contaminated by metals. This topic is conducted in conjunction with topic 4.

This component of the team's research is performed in partnership with laboratories in southern countries by using the scientific cooperation tools of the IRD (expatriation of researchers, MLD, JEAI, and International Mixed Laboratory).

Examples of studies

Bio-H2

Biofermentor for the production of hydrogen

We implement a hydrogen-production bioprocess from fermentable substrates by using microorganisms from hot and marine hot-spring ecosystems, which enable the use of seawater as a culture medium (JEAI Biotech H2).

Learn more about the JEAI Biotech H2 Research Program

Methane production

Example of the reconstruction of genomes and metabolic pathways from metanomic data in anaerobic digesters (Kouzouma et al., 2017)

We study the robustness of a methane-production process under inhibiting conditions by using metatranscriptomics.

Fish-Box

Fluorescent whole-cell molecular probes are developed to understand marine microbial interactions.

These probes are labelled rRNA and mRNA to quantify target microorganisms while expressing specific genes.

TSA-FISH (Tyramide Signal Amplification-Fluorescent In-Situ Hybridization) skills are regularly improved and updated (Zeller et al., 2016, Riou et al., 2017, Brient et al., 2017; FISHBOX FUI project).