La lauréate du Prix d’excellence en recherche 2025 de l’Union minéralogique européenne est
la professeure Julie Cosmidis (Université d’Oxford, Royaume-Uni).
Julie Cosmidis s’est imposée comme une figure de proue dans le domaine de la biominéralisation à l’échelle internationale, en combinant des expériences de pointe en minéralogie et en biochimie ainsi que des recherches à l’échelle nanométrique afin de mieux cerner les mécanismes à l’œuvre dans la biominéralisation. Compte tenu de l’impact considérable de ses nombreuses réalisations, Julie Cosmidis mérite pleinement de recevoir la Research Excellence Medal 2025 de l’EMU.
Suite à sa nommination en tant que Lauréate, Julie Cosmidis présentera ses travaux le Jeudi 26 Mars 2026 à 14h (CET, heure de Paris). Pour assister à sa présentation, il est nécessaire de s’enregistrer via Zoom, en suivant ce lien. Ci-dessous le titre et le résumé de sa présentation :
Titre : Decoding carbonate (bio)mineralisation using high-throughput mineralogy
Résumé : Carbonates are a major biomineral type for both Eukaryotes and Prokaryotes, an important sink in the biogeochemical carbon cycle, and the basis for many paleoenvironmental proxies. They are also increasingly used for long-term carbon removal, and as promising materials to replace carbon-intensive products (e.g., biocements for construction). Carbonate crystallisation is influenced by many physicochemical variables (temperature, pH, saturation, etc.) and by inorganic and organic species that can inhibit or promote mineral nucleation and growth, controlling particle abundance as well as mineralogical properties such as morphology, composition, and crystal structure. Microbial cells can also mediate or influence carbonate formation through metabolic activity or the production of organic molecules. While the effects of these factors on carbonate mineralisation have been studied individually, their complex interactions have not been systematically explored. Indeed, our current understanding is mainly based on empirical studies that investigate the effects of these factors in isolation, and whose findings cannot be easily extrapolated to complex natural and engineered systems. To move beyond the state-of-the-art, we have developed a new high-throughput methodology combining in-situ imaging, automated Raman analyses, and Machine Learning. This approach allows us to rapidly perform and characterise hundreds to thousands of miniaturised mineralisation experiments, covering a wide multi-dimensional space of chemical variables and testing the effects of different organic molecules or bacterial strains on carbonate precipitation rates and mineralogical properties. I will present early results from this methodology and explain how it can be used to decode the environmental and genetic controls of microbial biomineralisation.
