Mercury (Hg) pollution is considered a major environmental problem. Due to its extreme toxicity, Hg has been recently included in the list of the top ten chemicals of major public health concern by the World Health Organization. Once released in the environment, it is transformed, principally in aquatic ecosystems, by microorganisms into the neurotoxic methylmercury. Its hazardous effect is biomagnified through the trophic chain, resulting in serious social and health effects. However, Hg metabolic pathways in biota remain elusive. Its understanding is crucial to elucidate its (eco)toxic effect as well as its biogeochemical cycle. Bioavailability, mobility and toxicity of an element are dependent of its chemical forms. Hg binding with proteins has been evoked as a cause for toxicity and the role of selenium (Se) as antagonist for Hg toxicity is acknowledged but not understood so far. MERSEL is an ambitious and multidisciplinary research project, which main objective is to advance the understanding of Hg metabolic pathways in living organisms paying also attention to its (antagonist) interaction with Se. The project is based on the development of new analytical approaches that combines speciation and natural isotopic fractionation in a unique pattern. Speciation provides valuable information about reactivity and potential toxicity of the metabolites. Complementary, the natural abundance isotopic signature adds a dynamic dimension, comprising the life history of the target element, its (pollution) source and reaction tracking. The resulting (bio)molecular and isotopic signature will be precious in the insight of Hg in biota and its detoxification mechanisms, including its relation with Se. On a long term prospective, this highly innovative methodology could be extended to other metal/loids and push back frontiers in life and environmental sciences related to them. The success of the project is assured by the knowhow in speciation and isotopic analysis and worldwide unique instrumental facilities of the host laboratory. MERSEL will build knowledge on environmental ecotoxicology with a potential application in health science through a multidisciplinary project (biogeochemistry, ecotoxicology and metabolomic). It will contribute to improve the understanding of Hg metabolism and its potential detoxification in fish and marine mammals, which could be used later on as a reference work to study Hg behavior in humans. It has a direct societal impact considering that until now there is a lack of efficient treatment against the toxicity of this pollutant. One of the most important socio-economic benefits is that it will help in setting new guidelines for aquaculture feeding practices to avoid fish contamination with Hg toxic forms and to insure proper bioassimilation of its antagonist, Se. It also aims the establishment for fish and seafood of more realistic mercury toxicity assessment than the current criteria that is limited to the methylmercury content. It has a direct link with aquaculture development preconized by H2020 European program to sustainably exploit and manage aquatic living resources. The aquaculture model fish studied in this project, trout, is representing with salmon the main share by value of aquatic species in world trade (FAO, 2016) and the main fish species produced in France (2nd European producer).

Hydrogen (H2) is the smallest molecule and it is a very promising resource as its combustion only produces water and releases huge amount of energy. Nowadays, H2 is mainly obtained by hydrocarbon reforming and this process leads to CO2 production. H2 can also be generated by water electrolysis using the excess of energy produced by renewables. It can then be transported and stored in large amounts into underground natural reservoirs, such as aquifers and depleted hydrocarbon fields. Although quantities remain to be determined, H2 is also produced as a geological resource from natural emissions. H2 can thus be both an energy vector and a resource and, as such, plays a central part in Engie’s R&D strategy. The ORHYON industrial chair is based on the complementary strengths of Engie, UPPA and IFPEN to lead the way towards competitive sustainable hydrogen solutions. This project, in line with the partners activities, will focus on H2 mobility and bio-chemical reactivity in natural porous media, from deep environments to surface. The chair will run for four years, and will be carried by Anthony Ranchou-Peyruse, specialist of deep subsurface microbiology in UPPA-IPREM. The project will be organized in three scientific work packages (WP) : - the first WP will focus on deep environments, using representative microbial consortia and numerical simulations to model them, - the second WP will look for biological and geochemical indicators of H2-rich systems by studying natural analogues, - the third one, integrating the results of the other WPs, will consist in building a large-scale numerical model of the H2 reactive flow in a sedimentary basin. Six PhD students and post-doctoral researchers will be recruited for these WPs. Data necessary for these tasks will be mostly acquired in the Sao Francisco basin, a natural analogue located in the Minas Gerais state in Brazil, where natural H2 emissions have been detected. The ORHYON chair represents an essential link in a set of studies recently launched by Engie in this area. In a concrete way, the results provided by this project will lead to a better understanding of the processes controlling H2 migration and retention in geological formations, but also to new tools and methodologies to reduce the risks associated with geological storage, to precise the potential of H2 as an energetic resource and provide technical guidance for its exploration and production. Benefits for the scientific community will come as publications and presentations during conferences, dedicated courses in UPPA’s masters and IFP School’s modules by the researchers associated to this chair, and a workshop organized at IFPEN at the end of the project. The proposed approach is innovative, multidisciplinary, and combine field observations, laboratory experiments and numerical simulations. It will benefit from the scientific excellence in the domains of microbiology, geology, geochemistry, numerical modeling of the research institutes participating to this chair supported by Engie, its CRIGEN research center and subsidiaries. In the continuity of previous common works on this thematic, the ORHYON chair occupies a central part in the scientific roadmap between UPPA, IFPEN and Engie to build a long-term collaborative research focused on H2 and subsurface.

The objective of the joint laboratory between the SME Animine and the research laboratory IPREM (Institute of Analytical Sciences and Physical-Chemistry for Environment and Materials), a Joint Research Unit of the CNRS and UPPA (UMR 5254), is to develop a common structure of Research and Development centered on cutting-edge analytical methods for studying high added value trace elements (especially Zn, Cu, Mn) in the feed industry. Animine want to understand better the behavior of their products in order to improve their efficiency and to decrease their environmental impact. With this common project, Animine will boost their position on the market compared to their competitors. It is planned, that this advantage will triple their business volume (from 5 to 15 M€), especially with the penetration of the markets LATAM, USA or Canada) and will lead to the creation of 7 new job positions in the R&D, Marketing and Sales departments of Animine until 2023. The research lines of this joint laboratory, called SPECIMAN (SPECIation of Metals for Animal Nutrition), have the aim to improve the physical-chemical characteristics of the existing and future innovative products of Animine in order to enhance their bioavailability, refine their inclusion recommendations and thus reduce their concentrations in the animals’ excretions. The common laboratory will profit on the IPREM side from specialized skills on cutting-edge analytical technologies, and on the Animine side from the specialized expertise and knowledge on additives for animal nutrition, on their effects on the performances to achieve in animal breeding, as well as on the environmental impact. The joint laboratory will be developed in the following steps: - Development of analytical methods for Zn in 5 different matrixes corresponding to 5 different steps throughout the evolution of the product (additive, feed, digestion, absorption, and excretion) in order to study the zinc metabolism in the organism for its better understanding and improvement of the dosage recommendations. - Analysis of the first samples with Zn supplementation to obtain the composition and the evolution of different forms and sources of Zn from the industrial process, during digestion until excretion by defecation. - The firsts two steps will be followed for copper and manganese as well. - Refinement of the dosage recommendation and repetition of the analytical and zootechnical evaluations. At the outcome of these steps, the joint laboratory will have several tools and analytical methods at its disposal for the evaluation of physical-chemical characteristics of Animine products, in order to assess their quality, but also to keep on improving their efficiency and differentiate them from the competitor’s products on the market. The common strategy will be as follows: - Broadening to other trace elements (Fe, S, Mo, Se, I). - Improvement of the analytical methods towards a cross-referencing of data between the various trace elements to underline the possible synergic/antagonistic effects between them or with other components (e.g.: amino acids, antioxidants, microorganisms, microbiote) which can influence their bioavailability. The entirety of the analytical techniques of the IPREM laboratory (for example for organic analysis) might be necessary later in a new analytical methods development program. The joint laboratory will mobilize from both side 2 FTE as well as the equipment and analytical platforms.

The NanoSCAPE project aims to develop a new analytical methodology based on the use of nanoparticles and spectrometry techniques for the very high sensitive detection of bacteria and pathogens. The use of spectrometrically revealed nanoparticles will allow the direct detection of bacteria with extremely low detection limits, of the order of 0.1 bacteria/ml in biological fluids (e.g. blood, urine, synovial fluid). Furthermore, this approach will allow the highly selective detection and counting of up to 30 strains of target bacteria and pathogens simultaneously and in just a few minutes. As part of the NanoSCAPE project, we will carry out a proof of concept on 10 different strains of bacteria. This new approach could be complementary or even alternative to indirect diagnostic methods such as those based on antibody detection (ELISA, Western blot), or PCR. An application for the direct detection of Borrelia involved in Lyme disease, which is considered difficult to diagnose, will be developed using blood, urine or synovial fluid samples. Through a diagnostic programme on nearly 450 patients (including controls) at different stages of the disease, we will evaluate the NanoSCAPE analytical approach in terms of efficiency, selectivity and ease of implementation on the different biological fluids mentioned above. The results will be systematically compared to existing tests and will allow us to decide on the relevance of proposing new tests based on the methodology developed in the project. Given the wide range of scientific and technological fields involved (analytical chemistry, physical chemistry of nanoparticles, immunology, medicine), we have set up a consortium of 3 public research laboratories (including a university hospital), each of which is an expert in a key discipline, a private company that is a leader in the development of antibodies and a hospital that is recognised as a centre of competence for Lyme disease. A significant part of the project will be devoted to technological (patents with the support of a regional SATT) and scientific (conferences, peer-reviewed articles) development. As such, it is not possible to give more strategic, technical and scientific information on the NanoSCAPE project in this summary. In addition, after having carried out the main actions of technological valorisation, we will boost the interactions towards the general public through several conferences, interventions in high schools/colleges, diffusion on social networks and creation of a comic strip. We will also subcontract an expert organisation in the field of scientific popularisation to ensure not only the quality and content of the media (videos, comic strip) but also high visibility (several million views per week). An association (at least) on Lyme disease will also serve as a relay for the dissemination of the project's progress to the general public. We will also rely on the actions of a competitiveness cluster to help us disseminate our advances to the industrial world. The NANOScape project will thus make it possible to develop a novel, extremely sensitive and rapid approach for the simultaneous detection of bacteria and pathogens in biological fluids, with applications that will ultimately go beyond the detection of Lyme disease.

The archaeology of the Late Pleistocene in southern Africa is entangled between two current scientific perspectives, which address the origin of behavioural modernity on the one side and the origin of San material culture on the other. These two perspectives overlap two successive chronocultural phases that are, respectively, the Middle Stone Age (MSA) and the Later Stone Age (LSA). This succession is viewed as a milestone in the evolution of human populations because it inaugurates the final stage of the hunter-gatherer way of life before the adoption of farming and live-stock. However, the separation between the MSA and the LSA in Africa is an academic and Europeo-centric consensus and frame, inherited from the early 20th century, which contributes to bias our scientific narrative. In our project The MileStone Age, we question the distinctiveness of the MSA and LSA lithic technologies in southern Africa, we challenge the putative scenarios of transitions and we interrogate how the distinction between the MSA and the LSA impacts the rethinking of our evolutionary models. We propose a complete analytical shift and promote a long-term narrative merging both Late Pleistocene MSA and LSA archaeological records. Our project is based as well on a revision of the chronology of the technological expressions that manifest in the region during the Late Pleistocene. Four clusters of sites in three different biomes across southern Africa, dated from marine isotopic stages 5 to 1, will be studied. The first cluster includes the sites of Diepkloof Rock Shelter and Elands Bay Cave in the Western Cape (South Africa); the second cluster includes the sites of Sibhudu and Umbeli Belli in KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa); the third cluster includes the sites of Heuningneskrans and Bushman Rock Shelter in Limpopo (South Africa); and the fourth cluster includes the sites of Pomongwe and Bambata Caves in the Matobo (Zimbabwe). All the sites offer long and rich occupational sequences within finely stratified deposits covering the Late Pleistocene. While some of the excavations are ongoing, most material for dating and lithic studies is already available. Lithic technological comparisons will favour three distinct perspectives: (a) the “chronocultural intervals” will focus on defining the technocomplexes, (b) the “chronocultural contacts” will focus on the scenario(s) of transitions; (c) the “techno-functional attributes” will focus on the innovative lithic tools that develop across southern Africa at different moments in time during the Late Pleistocene. Regarding the dating, two methods will be applied: Optically Stimulated Luminescence dating of sediments and uranium-series dating of biominerals. Both will benefit from recent technological and methodological breakthroughs that intend to go beyond the current state of the art. With regard to the dissemination of our results and in addition to papers and conferences, we intend to organize two main workshops in South Africa with the purpose to present and discuss lithic collections with African students and researchers. The project is scheduled for four years, for a total cost of 436 k€. The IRAMAT-CRP2A will manage the luminescence dating of sediments while the IPREM will be in charge of the U-series dating of biocarbonates. The LAMPEA will organize the lithic technological studies in collaboration with three international partners from the University of Tübingen (Germany), the University of Liège (Belgium), and the University of Cape Town (South Africa). This project relies on three funded excavation projects, thus ensuring access to the samples and sites. It is also embedded within a wide, dynamic and efficient network, including both experienced and young European and African scholars.