Andrea Fasano, SCF Sud PACA 2024 thesis prize

Promoting PhD students who have made major advances

The PACA regional section of the Société Chimique de France (SCF) attaches particular importance to promoting PhD students who have made major advances in their field of research during the course of their thesis.

To encourage the production of high-quality research work by host teams in the PACA region, and to reward the students who have carried out these projects, the PACA regional section of the SCF has created the SCF Sud PACA 2024 thesis prize.

Andrea Fasano, winner 2024

Dr. Andrea Fasano completed his thesis at the Laboratoire de bioénergétique et ingénierie des protéines under the supervision of Dr. Christophe Léger and Dr. Vincent Fourmond. His subject? The electrochemical study of the biodiversity of [FeFe]- and [NiFe]-hydrogenases, with particular emphasis on the mechanisms of catalysis and reaction with oxygen.

To this end, he studied metalloenzymes called hydrogenases that catalyze redox reactions of the H+/H₂ couple, and in particular new hydrogenases described as atypical. The aim of his work was to deepen our knowledge of the biodiversity of hydrogenases, using electrochemical techniques in a context of enzyme kinetics. Thus, he characterized in detail the catalytic properties (directionality, reversibility, tolerance to inhibitors such as oxygen) of three [FeFe] hydrogenases belonging to very poorly characterized phylogenetic families, and made a major contribution to the design of "chimeric" [NiFe] hydrogenases.

Dr. Andrea Fasano is currently a post-doctoral research associate at the Laboratoire de bioénergétique et ingénierie des protéines.