Lemelle Laurence
Statut : Directrice de Recherche CNRS
Thème : Biosignatures et Vie Primitive
Site : ENS de Lyon
adresse mail : laurence.lemelle@ens-lyon.fr
Description du thème de recherche :
Her research focuses on the microbial cell/mineral interactions and assemblages using non-destructive visible and X-ray elemental and molecular imaging techniques. In the 2000s, she pioneered a new program to detect past and present microbial cells in rocks using synchrotron micro-XRF and work on XRF analyses of the cometary and interstellar grains of the NASA Stardust Sample Return Mission. Today, she is a key developer of the trace metal quantification by XRF recorded on the new generation X-ray nanoprobes dedicated to elemental and molecular imaging. The aim is the exploration of biological patterns and biomarkers with unprecedented sensitivity in the oldest microbial traces at the origin of life. In 2008, in joint work with C. Place, biophysicists of the Laboratoire de Physique (ENS de Lyon), she initiated an experimental study based on visible microscopy. The aim was to better understand the primo interaction of microorganisms with solid surfaces that determines upstream the colonisation of mineralogical and biological environments. Part of this work is focused on how to limit surface biocontamination in future manned missions of long duration, based on the design of the MATISS sample return experiment on the ISS.