Research

Scientific Context and Objectives

Part of my research is concerned with understanding the different stages in the evolution of organic matter during the formation of a planetary system. The other part focuses on the chemical evolution of this organic matter on the surface of a terrestrial planet, with the Earth for example, to understand which environments could have or could allow an evolution towards particular chemical systems, prebiotics, that could have then evolve into biochemical systems.

In the next ten years, I want to continue to develop these projects along three axes:

1. To Determine the relationships that may exist between the gaseous and solid phases of an astrophysical object to determine potential molecular markers of chemical evolution of this object (molecular cloud, protoplanetary disc, surface of small bodies, surface of an icy satellite for example).

2. To Develop our experimental simulations and analytical methodologies as supports for present or future space missions.

3. To link my research in experimental astrochemistry and in prebiotic chemistry to delimit the environmental conditions that allowed a self-organization of exogenous organic matter (OM) towards the emergence of far from equilibrium replicative chemical systems. It is therefore the study of the evolution of OM far from the equilibrium in a given environment leading to an outline of natural selection which could be described as a proto-Darwinism at the molecular level.

All of these projects are based on an interdisciplinary approach that requires a close collaboration with researchers in astrophysics, planetology, physico-chemistry, analytical chemistry and chemistry of evolution. The purpose of this research is placed in the Astrobiology theme since my objectives are i) to determine the role that exogenous organic matter could have played, or could play, in the emergence of a prebiotic chemistry on the surface of a telluric planet, ii) to determine the chemical markers linked to this evolution, markers which would make it possible to define the “prebioticity” of a given planetary environment.

An Interdisciplinary Approach

An interdisciplinary approach to these subjects seems essential in order to meet the challenges particularly related to understanding the transition from non-living to living, and to work experimentally on the notion of “prebioticity” of a terrestrial planet, which would allow us to better define the potential habitability of such a planet.

Within the PIIM, for several years now, I have formed an interdisciplinary group linking physico-chemistry (Robert Pascal), analytical chemistry (Grégoire Danger), astrochemistry (Louis d'Hendecourt) and recently cosmochemistry (Vassilissa Vinogradoff). This approach has led us to get closer to other teams such as the one at GANIL (Philippe Boduch) to expand the astrophysical environments and processes allowing the formation of organic materials of interest for our scenario, as well as a team from IC2MP in Poitiers (Pauline Poinot) for the development of new analytical strategies necessary for the processing of complex samples in terms of molecular diversity generated during our experiments. Let us recall that the organic diversity is a prerequisite for this proto-Darwinian evolution that we are seeking to obtain as well as, of course, its study requires multi-technical and innovative analytical approaches.

Moreover, this complexity as well as the difficulty in highlighting the emergence of self-organized systems, and most certainly self-catalytic systems, led me to join laboratories that have high-tech analytical tools such as the COBRA laboratory (Carlos Alfonso, Rouen) and the Helmholtz Zentrum München (Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin, Munich) which have very high resolution mass spectrometers, FT-ICR-MS type. Beyond data collection, the Munich team has extensive experience in mass processing of data combined with sophisticated statistical processing methods, the only ones capable of identifying the emergence of self-organized systems in chaos of organic families at thermodynamic equilibrium.

In the end, all the projects that I develop are based on an important network of collaborations, since it includes eight national laboratories and two international laboratories with very varied skills, an essential element to be able to advance these projects and be able to continue to develop the dynamics of the themes that I have been able to set up for 10 years and to make them evolve towards new perspectives combining astrochemistry, cosmochemistry, prebiotic chemistry, analytical chemistry and space research in an astrobiological context.