Samuel Orgeas

Samuel Orgeas Hosts-symbiont response in two species of Lucinidae (Loripes orbiculatus and Lucinoma borealis) to H2S deprivation in semi-natural conditions. A comparative study using a multi-omics approach. Or How an association of organisms will react if we don’t feed it

Samuel is studying an environment that is the reflection of what can be found in the deep sea. By studying this simplified environment, he is trying to understand how this environment works and deduces the functioning of the deep-sea environment. The aim is to complement the experiment on the organisms of the deep sea. The aim is also to overcome the problems of equipment, time, funding, and pressure.

Samuel is studying chemosynthesis. It is a parallel mechanism to photosynthesis, in which microorganisms use chemical reactions instead of light to produce their energy. In a shallow and accessible coastal environment, they have found organisms capable of chemosynthesis. With those organisms, Samuel wants to propose a model organism that can be extensible to the deep-sea environment.

Why this subject ?

Samuel has chosen this subject because it combines many approaches (transcriptomics, metabarcoding, metabolomics, and proteomics) to understand what really is happening within an organism with techniques that he had never used before. This technical approach is what interested him.

A funny story related to this subject ?

To be able to access the area to collect samples, Samuel has to wait for the sea to go down during high coefficients. In Brittany, the sea goes down really far. One time, a high sea level, associated with higher pressure and stronger wind than expected, almost forced them to swim back to the land with the samples, shovels, and picks on their shoulders.