Detailed expertise

All our expertise applies to systems of agronomic origin, in the broad sense: terrestrial or marine plants, plant tissues or organs, food or food matrices, agro-sourced materials, model systems, etc.

Synopsis:

• Identification & quantification of biopolymers
• Fine structure of complex polysaccharides and proteins
• Chemical phenotyping
• Multimodal and multiscale imaging
• Molecular dynamics and interactions

Identification & quantification of biopolymers (poly/oligosaccharides, peptides/proteins)

• Help characterize the composition of raw or processed bioresources 
• Determine the impact of treatments/processes or environmental factors on structures

Our methods allow:

• to determine the amount of poly/oligosaccharides, soluble sugars & proteins – Equipment: GC, HPAEC-PAD, elemental analysis
• to determine the biopolymer composition of a mixture - Equipment: NMR (solid state & liquid)

Fine structure of complex polysaccharides and proteins

• Bring elements of knowledge helping to link existing structures and properties/functionalities

On poly/oligosaccharides, BIBS offers a complementary and efficient set of methods to determine:

• the structural profile of the polysaccharides of interest (enzymatic fingerprints) - Equipment: MALDI MS, HPAEC-PAD, UPLC-MS
• the structural heterogeneity, in more detail: modifications, branching, isomerism, etc. - Equipment: UPLC-MS/DEDL, UPLC-MS/MS, liquid NMR
• the sequence of glycoside residues and their connectivity (inter-osidic bonds) - Equipment: NMR and 2D NMR (solid state or liquid), GC-MS, (UPLC-)MS/MS
• the presence of isomers - Equipment : UPLC-MS/DEDL, UPLC-MS/MS, Ion mobility
• the polymorphism & cristallinity of cellulose - Equipment: solid state NMR

On proteins, our methods allow: 

• to identify proteins and their modifications at the whole proteome scale - Equipment: nanoUPLC-MS/MS (+ SpecOMS databank search algorithm)

Chemical phenotyping

• Explore the compositional and structural variability of polysaccharides with middle-throughput biochemical screening methods

Our methods allow:

• to automate the steps of extraction and biochemical preparation of samples - Equipment: ASE extractors, multifunctional platform for automated preparation 
• to analyze the composition and overall profile of poly/oligosaccharides on collections of samples - Equipment: GC, GC-MS, MALDI MS
• to perform chemometric processing of the data 

Multimodal and multiscale imaging

• Observe and describe structures and architectures at different scales, in relation to the properties/functionalities 
• Provide localized chemical and structural information
• Combine several imaging modalities to obtain different and complementary information

BIBS offers a vast set of complementary methods, in scale and in information, for imaging: several microscopies (transmission and scanning electron, atomic force, fluorescent), mass spectrometry imaging and micro-imaging by magnetic resonance

Our methods allow:

• to prepare samples: sectioning (vibratome, microtome, cryotome), cryo-substitution, chemical and immuno-cytochemical labeling (proteins & polysaccharides), application of enzymes in situ
• to describe the structures of a tissue/object at the nanometric scale (size, distribution, heterogeneities) - Equipment: TEM, SEM, AFM
• to get a localized chemical/molecular information (identity of biopolymers) at the tissue or cell level - Equipment: AFM-Raman, confocal microscopy, MALDI mass spectrometry imaging
• to get localized information on water density and mobility, at the tissue - Equipment: micro-imaging by magnetic resonance
• to merge the information obtained by the different modalities and/or at different scales
• to perform parametric image processing: quantification of features, morphologies 

Molecular dynamics and interactions

• Observe and describe the interfaces (water/air, proteins/lipids, ...) - Equipment: TEM, SEM, confocal microscopy 
• Measure molecular dynamics: mobility and diffusion (water and small solutes) - Equipment: NMR (solid state, liquid) (relaxometry)   
• Characterize molecular interactions - Equipment: confocal microscopy (F-techniques), NMR