Mme Nesrine Aissaoui » Team : Signaling and membrane transport group

Biographical Info

I am a physico-chemist by training, with a great interest in biology. In my research projects, I use “top-down” – “bottom-up” engineering approaches to create highly ordered materials with tailored properties and functions suitable for applications in biology, medicine, and beyond. In this context, the supramolecular assembly of biomolecules (proteins, peptides, collagen, DNA, etc.) was a very interesting approach to create organized bio-synthetic systems, at the nanometer scale. For example, to tailor-make model systems by the directed self-assembly of purified components on solid supports to understand the (i) effect of protein organization (enzymes) on planar surface (phD work: 2009-2013, LRS, Sorbonne University, Paris, France), or (ii) dynamics of supramolecular assembly of disordered proteins in the nuclear pore using solid-nanopores (Post-doctoral fellow: 2016-2017, with Ralf Richter, CIC BiomaGUNE, San Sebastian, Spain). I also used the self-assembly method of DNA, called DNA-origami, to design and construct three-dimensional geometries with nanometer precision. For example, I employed DNA origami (i) as a nano-plasmonic platform to transfer energy (Post-doctoral fellow: 2014-2016, with Bo Albinsson, Chalmers University, Gothenburg), or (ii) for the conception of modular imaging scaffold for single-particle cryo-EM. I have also developed sophisticated systems with programmable actuation capabilities to recapitulate and decipher fundamental aspects of biology (Post-doctoral fellow: 2018-2020, with Gaëtan Bellot, CBS, Montpellier, France). In 2020, I joined the University of Paris for an assistant professor position to work in the team “signaling and membrane transport” in developing bio-inspired systems, which can provide practical advantages to help to better understand fundamental biological questions with potential uses in medicine.

Research :

DNA origami nanotechnology; structural biology; physical-chemistry of interfaces; nanoplasmonic; FRET; microfluidic devices; solid-nanopores

Characterization Techniques:

• Physical-chemistry: XPS, FT-IR spectroscopy (modes PM-IRRAS and GA-ATR)
• Time resolved (QCM-D, spectroscopic ellipsometry)
• Fluorescence techniques:
• Fluorescence spectroscopy (steady-state, time-resolved, and anisotropy)
• Fluorescence microscopy (confocal microscope)

Electron Microscopy (TEM, Cryo-EM)

Publications :

ORCID ID: 0000-0002-0591-5934