Implantable biofuel cells and biosensors:

We chose two biomimetic approaches to create bioinspired biofuel cells. The first was an enzymatic biofuel cell that generated electrical current from redox mechanisms. The second was a biomimetic biofuel cell that generated an electrical potential from ion transfer across a biomimetic membrane. The enzymatic biofuel cell, utilizing glucose and oxygen, is theorically able to work almost indefinitely as its substrates are always present in the body fluids. However, the biocompatibility and the long-term performance of this biofuel cell for a human implantation remains a real bottleneck. We are working on the design and the implantation of new enzymatic biofuel cells in different animal models. The implantation of such devices is challenging and a novel creative solution is to take a physiological point of view to address biocompatibility problems and electrical measurement techniques. We are now capable to implant these biofuel cells in large animals by analyzing the performance of the biofuel cells in real time.
We also initiate the biomimetic biofuel cell concept. It consists of a membrane transport protein (i.e ion channels) incorporated in a biomimetic membrane, which transforms a gradient of salt into a proton gradient. We also generate a 20 mV voltage with a 38 mm² flat membrane. This biomimetic membrane containing the NhaA sodium/ proton exchanger is stable for more than two weeks.

The use of immobilized enzymes or biomimetic membranes incorporating transport proteins allows us to create and open out a huge range of biosensors. The ceration of the biosensors also benefits from the miniaturization we are able to achieve through the application of nanotechnology, such as by the principles described here.

Other implantable devices:

We also focus on innovative medical devices capable of modifying the gut microbiota,involved in many pathologies (e.g morbid obesity, diabetes, chronic inflammatory diseases, Parkinson's disease). We are optimizing an intestinal reactor able to consume nutrients, modify the physicochemical conditions to which the microbiota is sensitive and produce molecules of interest. This reactor and a microbiota sampler are yet tested in vivo. Those two projects are supported by the  SATT Linksium (Technology transfert & startup building).

Systems for personalised medicine and HTS :

We develop these systems by relying on the concepts of “biomimetics”. This concept was first introduced by Otto Schmidt in 1969 during a presentation at the 3rd International Biophysics Congress in Boston. Such a biomimetic approach, also used in the field of nanobiotechnologies, means that the fabrication processes for the systems are based on the way that natural systems a “self-assembled”. An example is our involvement in the UroLOC project, which is an ambitious scheme in collaboration with scientists from the CEA and CNRS to develop a nanostructured 3D polyelectrolyte scaffold that is connected to a microfluidic biochip to examine the influence of the microenvironment on cancerous cells from the prostate and to identify new biomarkers for prostate cancer.

This basic research has already given rise to 2 patents and 3 publications, one in the journal Biomaterials, where we show that a positively-charged polyelectrolyte film of only several nanometres in thickness reduced the clustering and proliferation of cancerous prostate cells.

Our ongoing work is developing those fundamental results into a diagnostic device for personalized medicine and high-throughput-screening (HTS).