From August 31, 2018 to November 1, 2018
I went to Le Mans on September 2018 as part of the GHaNA project. I participated to the part of this project that deals with the exploration and characterization of marennine pigment, a marine biological resource from the genus Haslea.
During the secondment, I got an opportunity to perform the purification of marennine sample, the blue pigment produced by the diatom Haslea ostrearia, from its culture media, in collaboration between the Chemistry, Biology, and Physics Departments in the University of Le Mans. Subsequently, I was able to carry out the experiments to study the activity of several carbohydrate-active enzymes, namely endo and exo- glucanases and Beta-galactosidase towards the marennine pigments. Furthermore, I also tried to do the Nuclear Magnetic Resonance analysis of the enzymatic products resulted from bioassay experiments.
In addition, I also got a chance to participate to the Nuit Européenne des Chercheurs (European Researcher’s night), an event that allows the researchers to be engaged with the common people to explain their research work and results. This event allowed me to present my secondment in the framework of the GHaNA project and to observe the high public interest regarding research and its advances particularly in the city of Le Mans.
