photographist

“My desire to understand the human body mechanisms at the molecular level motivated me to carry out a PhD on human mitochondrial neurodegenerative disorders. The aim of this research was to understand how a specific DNA mutation could lead to a misfolding of the gene product and, from a medical aspect, to assess the impact of this mutation on the mitochondrial protein content. For this, by using a human cellular model bearing this mutation, we compared the whole mitochondrial proteins content of healthy and « sick » cells. The highlighting of up and down regulated proteins in the presence of this mutation contributed to a better understanding of this disorder and as a consequence, could perhaps have opened the way to a future gene therapy. Then, I obtained a post doctoral position at the medical university of Innsbruck where I worked on a project devoted to understanding the cell cycle and cellular death regulation related to human cancer.

From microorganisms to humans, they can all be affected by environmental pollutants produced by human and industrial activities leading to modification of our ecosystem. I currently work in an ecotoxicological research laboratory where we assess the impact of such pollutants. Our interest is focused on the effects of household products rejected in wastewaters and ending in sewerage plants, or former industrial sites highly polluted by heavy metals, or still in the impact of nanoparticles. In nanoparticulate form, the dioxide of titanium - used in numerous domestic products-, present a higher surface of reactivity and it induces a cellular death of bacteria but it destroys, for example, a part of the microorganisms which are necessary in sewage sludge for the wastewater cleaning.”

Bénédicte Sohm
Research engineer, LIEC - University of Lorraine

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