Parcours

Education

1975: Master in Sciences, Paul Cézanne Univ. Aix-Marseille III
1976: Chemical Ingeneer, Ecole Supérieure de Chimie de Marseille
1980: First Ph. D., Paul Cézanne Univ. Aix-Marseille III, September 26, 1980, Reactivity of non-conjugated dienes towards the catalytic system PdCl2/CuCl2: cyclisation and allylic oxidations (Pr. B. Waegell and Dr. A. Heumann)
1984: Second Ph. D. (thèse d’Etat), Pierre and Marie Curie Univ. Paris VI, December 18, 1984, Syntheses and Reactivity of Thia and 1-Aza-3-Cyclohexenes (Dr. S. Julia)

Experience

1980-1984: CNRS Researcher (Attaché de Recherche), Ecole Normale Supérieure, Pierre and Marie Curie Univ. Paris VI, Dr. S. Julia
1985-1986: Research Fellow; University of Geneva, Switzerland, Pr. W. Oppolzer.
1986-1994: CNRS Researcher (CR1), Paul Cézanne Univ. Aix-Marseille III, Pr. B. Waegell
1989-1990: Research Fellow, Lab. of Cellular and Molecular Neurobiology, Gif/Yvette, Dr. J. Mallet.
1992: Visiting scientist, Johns Hopkins Univ., Baltimore, USA, Pr. K. D. Karlin.
1994-2018 : Senior scientist at CNRS (Directeur de Recherche), Aix-Marseille Université
2018-: CNRS Research Director emeritus (DREM)

Past administrative positions

1996-2004: Member of the organising committee of REncontres de Chimie Organique Biologique (President for RECOB8, 2000)
2000-2004: Appointed member of the CNRS Comité National section 20
2001-2006: Founding President of the GIS CNRS/Univ. Paul Cézanne Club CNRS Métalloprotéines et Modèles

2006-2011: Member of the scientific committee of the Indo-French Center for the Promotion of the Advanced Research (CEFIPRA/IFCPAR)
2006-2008: Founding Director of the FRE CNRS 3005 BiosCiences

2007-2009: Member of the scientific committee of the ANR program blanc
2009-2012: Vice-president of the ANR program Retour Post-doctorant
2009-2017: Head of the team BiosCiences
 (iSm2 UMR CNRS 7313)
2010-2015: French member of the Management Committee Action COST CM1003, Biological Oxidation Reactions, Mechanisms and Design of new Catalysts
2012-2018: Scientific officier at the Institut de Chimie du CNRS

Distinctions

2002: Docteur et de Madame Henri Labbé prize from the French Academy of Science.
2002: JSPS fellowship
2004: France Berkeley Fund with J. P. Klinman, Department of Chemistry UC Berkeley
2011: CNRS Excellence in Science
2014: Chaire d’excellence from FAPESP (São Paulo Research Fondation) in University of São Paulo (USP).

Teaching

Aix Marseille Université
- Synthetic biology, M2 degree course in Master Chemistry

Université de Paris
- Redox bio-inorganic chemistry, M2 degree course in Master Frontiers in Chemistry

Università degli Studi di catania (Italy), october 2021
- Introduction of non-canonical amino acids in protein synthesis in Doctoral course degree

Ecole de l’INSERM Liliane Bettencourt, double degree course Medecine/Science
- Chemical aspects of Epigenetic, L2 course for medical students

- Chemistry of the S-Adenosyl Methionine cofactor (MOOC)

Research

Activation of small molecules (O2, H2, H2O, CO2 …) by metalloenzymes and their biomimetic/bioinspired models.

A) Cu-containing monooxygenases (in collaboration with J. A. Simaan, M. Orio, B. Faure, R. Hardré and C. Decroos) 
Focused on Tyrosinase (Ty), Dopamine beta-Hydroxylase (DbH), Peptidylglycine alpha-Amidating Monooxygenase (PAM), particulate Methane MonoOxygenase (pMMO) and Lytic Polysaccharide MonoOxygenase (LPMO):

- Functional and structural metalloenzyme models
- Mechanism-based inhibitors of DbH, PAM and Ty
- Purification and genetic expression of copper-containing monooxygenases.

Selected publications on Tyrosinase inhibition: Inorg. Chem. 2009, 48, 10874–10876 ; Eur. J. Chem. Med. 2011, 46, 4330-4335 ; Chem. Eur. J. 2011, 17, 13482–13494 ; ChemBioChem 2012, 13, 559-565 ; Chem. Eur. J. 2013, 19, 3655-3664 ; Chem. Commun. 2014, 50, 308-3010 ; ChemBioChem 2014,15(9), 1325–1333 ; Inorg. Chem. 2014, 53, 12848-12858 ; J. Agr. Food Chem. 2016, 64, 2925-2931 ; Current Topics in Medicinal Chemistry 2016, 16(27), 3033-3047 ; ACS Med. Chem. Lett. 2017, 8 (1), 55-60 ; ChemEur J. 2021, 27, 4384-4393 ; Eur. J. Med. Chem. 2023, 248, 115090.

Selected publications on LPMO: Inorg. Chem. 2017, 56, 1023-1026 ; FEBS J. 2020, 287, 3298–33143.

Selected publications on copper bioinorganic chemistry: Inorg. Chem. 2013, 52(10), 5824-5830 ; Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2015, 3512–3518 ; Inorg. Chem. 2016, 55, 8263-8266 ; Dalton trans. 2016, 45, 15994-16000 ; ChemPlusChem 2017, 82, 615-624 ; Inorg. Chem. 2017, 56, 7704-7719 ; Inorg. Chim. Acta 2018,481, 113-119 ; Chem. Eur. J. 2018, 24, 5213-5224 ; Dalton trans. 2018, 47, 9665-9676 ; Inorg. Chem. 2018, 57, 12364−12375 ; Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2018, 5039–5046 and “Series in Chemistry, Energy and Environment”, Eds.K. Kadish and R. Guilard, World Scientific. Vol. 5: “Bioinspired Chemistry: From Enzymes to Synthetic Models.”, Ed. M. Réglier, 2019, pp. 185-263 ; Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2020, 4549-4555 ; Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. Engl. 2019, 58, 14605 –14609 ; ChemBioChem 2021, 22, 443-459 ; Chem. Eur. J. 2022, e202202206 ; ChemCatChem 2023, under press.

B) [NiFe]hydrogenase (in collaboration with M. Orio, B. Faure and R. Hardré)
Biomimetic chemistry focused on functional models to perform the reversible transformation of protons to H2.

Publications: ChemCatChem 2017, 9, 2262-2268, Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2018, 2259-2266 ; Chem. Eur. J. 2018, 24, 8779-8786 ; Dalton Trans. 2020, 49, 5064–5073 ; ChemComm 2020, 56(75), 11106-11109 ; Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2020, 4549-4555 ; Inorganics 2023, 11, 149.

C) Molybdenum-containing enzymes (in collaboration with O. Iranzo, M. Orio and R. Hardré) 
Biomimetic chemistry focused on functional models of Formate dehydrogenases (Fdh) that perform the reversible transformation of CO2 into formate.

Publication: Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2018, 1427-1434 and J. Org. Chem. 2021, 86, 2210-2223.

D) Books and Chapters

• Copper Mononuclear Monooxygenases. M. Réglier and C. Belle in “Encyclopedia of Metalloproteins”, eds. R. H. Kretsinger, V. N. Uversky and E. A. Permyakov, Springer, 2013, pp. 723-729.
• 1-Aminocyclopropane-1-Carboxylic Acid Oxidase. A. J. Simaan and M. Réglier in "2-Oxoglutarate-Dependent Oxygenases", eds. C. Schofield and R. P. Hausinger. Royal Society of Chemistry, 2015, RSC Metallobiology Series No. 3, pp. 423-437.
• “Bioinspired Chemistry: From Enzymes to Synthetic Models.”, Ed. M. Réglier, In “Series in Chemistry, Energy and Environment”, Eds. K. Kadish and R. Guilard, World Scientific. Vol. 5: 2019.

Collaborations

French Collaborations

Dr. Nicolas Le Poul, CEMCA UMR CNRS 6521, Université de Bretagne Occidentale
Drs. Aurore Thibon Pourret, Hélène Jamet and Catherine Belle, DCM UMR CNRS 5250, Université Grenoble Alpes
Dr. Jean Guy Berrin, BBF UMR INRA, Aix Marseille Université

International Collaborations

Pr. Luigi Bubacco, Department of Biology, University of Padova (Italy)
Pr. Surajit Sinha, Department of Organic Chemistry, Indian Association for the Cultivation of Science, Kolkata (India)

Administrative positions

2016-: Scientific Committee Member of the CEEBIOS (Centre Européen d'Excellence en Biomimetisme de Senlis)

2017-: Scientific Committee Member of the COSMETHICS, Cosmethics at the confluence of beauty and health (CDP 2017, Cross Disciplinary Program of Université Grenoble Alpes)

Outreaches

Nuit européenne des chercheurs: 2022, 2023 

Fête de la Science: 2023

Déclics: Member of the Association "Déclics" that promotes scientific research and its outlets among young people.

Apprentis Chercheurs: Member of the association "Les Apprentis Chercheurs" that allows high school students to develop a research project in a research laboratory.

Les Savanturiers: Mentoring in the association "Les Savanturiers" that mobilizes and federates schools (primary and high schools) and the scientific communities (Universities, CNRS …) to promote sciences in an educational program.

• 2018/19 ; Primary school Rabelais in Creil (Oise).
• 2020/- ; Primary school CM1/CM2 in Volonne (Alpes de Haute Provence)