This page is currently being updated. At present, only a brief description is available.
Keywords: biological materials; biopolymers; biomineralization; bone; ivory; sea-urchin; nano-/mesoscale structure; structure/function relationship; synchrotron radiation; X-ray scattering; SAXS; WAXS; diffraction; quantitative scanning SAXS imaging; biomedical studies; archaeology; biomimetics; bio-inspired materials.
RESEARCH ACTIVITIES:
Physics of heterogeneous, disordered, nano- & meso-structured materials.
Fundamental studies of the physical (functional) importance of nano-structuring, of the role of disorder (interfaces) and structural gradients in widespread strategies in nature for material design. Application to biomineralization processes, mechanics of complex systems...
Mutiscale characterization of hierarchical biological materials.
Investigation of the relative importance of the various degrees of the hierarchy and integration of information obtained at higher hierarchical scales in the understanding of the nanoscale properties of complex biological systems (in process).
Multimodal studies of the structure/properties relashionship in life science materials.
Development of original combinations of analytical and imaging techniques for structural & mechanical investigation of human tissues (in process).
Biomedical investigations of bone quality.
Fundamental studies of the effect of the molecular architecture, fibrilar organization, mineral particle structure, and tissue properties of healthy and pathological bones. Identification of the determinants of bone quality aiming to provide additional diagnostic tools for bone diseases such as osteoporosis and osteoarthritis and for the nano-scale evaluation of the effect of pharmaceutical treatments. Examples can be found in the publication section.
Archaeological identification and conservation of bone, ivory and antler artifacts and remains.
Complementary structural analysis at the nano-/mesoscale of archaeological bone and bone-like materials remains and artifacts in order to define structural markers of the state of preservation, gain a better understanding of diagenetic processes... Examples can be found in the publication section.
Development of quantitative scanning-SAXS imaging using synchrotron radiation.
Development of fast scanning X-ray scattering methods with automated reduction/analysis of the 2D SAXS/WAXS data in order to produce images (maps) of structural parameters as a function of scan position. This technique differs from more classical scanning-SAXS imaging in that the 2D scattering signal analysis is based on well-established tools of the theory of SAXS. Examples can be found in the publication section.
Software development for the analysis of large SAXS data sets (PySAXSLib).
See dedicated section.
Instrumental conception for multimodal studies & in-situ experiments using synchrotron radiation.
Design and implementation of an
micro-indenter setup for
synchrotron X-ray scattering (SAXS & diffraction) analysis of
highly localized strains in materials (PhD project). More details here.
Micro-N stretching cell for biological fibres.
