NUMEV-MIPS seminar "Thermodynamic analysis of microbial ecosystems and applications for modelling environmental bioprocesses".

The NUMEV Seminars are open to a wide audience of students and researchers from all disciplines, who wish to find out more about the current research areas of the NUMEV-MIPS (Mathematics, Informatics, Physics and Systems) community, or about opportunities to develop their skills and know-how.

Thermodynamic analysis of microbial ecosystems and applications to environmental bioprocess modeling.

Dr Elie Desmond-Le Quéméner
Research Scientist
INRAE - LBE

Research at the Environmental Biotechnology Laboratory (INRAE - LBE) aims to develop the concept of environmental biorefineries, focusing on the design, implementation and optimization of low-cost, high-performance bioprocesses. Our main objective is to establish sustainable systems for waste recovery and/or treatment.

Within this framework, my research is dedicated to understanding the underlying principles governing the microbial ecosystems at the heart of these bioprocesses. The objective is to develop explanatory and predictive models that can be used to drive and optimize these systems. In this seminar I will focus on the application of thermodynamic approaches to the modeling of microbial ecosystems in bioprocesses. Thermodynamic state functions are widely applied to the study of living systems across various organizational levels. However, the study of microbes, the simplest form of life, offers a distinctive opportunity to examine the link between living structures and energy dissipation. In particular, I will present what we know about energy flows and thermodynamic efficiencies within these systems and discuss possible links between microbial thermodynamics and kinetics.