Cécile Formosa-Dague is a CNRS researcher at the Toulouse Biotechnology Institute (TBI), specialized in the study of (bio)-interfaces and their interactions with their environment using atomic force microscopy techniques.
Microalgae are a promising resource for biofuel production, although their industrial use is limited by the lack of effective harvesting techniques. Cécile’s work focuses on developing efficient and sustainable ways to harvest them using flocculation/flotation technique. This technique first consists in a flocculation step where cells are aggregated into large flocs that can then be easily captured by rising microbubbles. Microbubbles bring the flocs to the suspension’s surface, allowing their easy separation from water. In this context, she uses AFM force spectroscopy techniques to understand the molecular mechanisms underlying microalgae flocculation. In addition, recent developments using FluidFM technology allows her to take the next step and probe the interactions directly between microbubbles and cells. Understanding these interactions between cells or between cells and bubbles paves the way for the development of cost-effective harvesting processes that will help in making microalgae-based biofuel production economically viable on an industrial scale.
Cecile Formosa-Dague
Recent AFM-related papers:
Biography: Cécile carried out her PhD between 2012 and 2015 at the Laboratory for Analysis and Architecture of the Systems (LAAS-CNRS) in Toulouse, where she worked on important issues related to multidrug-resistant microorganisms using AFM. After that, she joined Yves Dufrêne team at the Catholic University of Louvain (UCL) in Belgium, where she pushed further the technological concepts developed during her PhD to study biofilm formation in bacteria. In 2017, thanks to a Marie Curie grant, she joined Toulouse Biotechnology Institute (TBI) where she worked on developing interdisciplinary approaches to study microalgae and their interactions with their environment, still using AFM techniques. Finally in 2019, Cécile obtained a permanent position at Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), to continue and develop these research activities on microalgae and to work on new techniques based on FluidFM technology.
Twitter: @CecileFormosa
Website: https://www.toulouse-biotechnology-institute.fr/poles/equipe-tim/
Are you a woman conducting AFM research or know of someone you would like to nominate to be featured in our next #WomenInAFM campaign? Contact us at community@nunano.com!
Also, check out our previous March and November 2021 Women in AFM blog posts to read about more researchers.
Why are we celebrating women in AFM? (March 2021)
Why do we need to highlight women in AFM? (Nov 2021)