Clotilde Policar

Professor, Ecole Normale Supérieure, PSL university
Dean of the sciences education of Ecole Normale Supérieure
Deputy director of the Laboratoire des BioMolécules (LBM), UMR7203, CNRS-ENS-PSL-SU

ENS-PSL
Department of chemistry: 24, rue Lhomond, 75005 Paris, France
Dean of the sciences education (Direction des études sciences): 45, rue d’Ulm, 75005 Paris, France

Email: clotilde.policar@ens.psl.eu
Phone: +33 144322424
Office: E037

Website of the research group « metals in biology »:
https://ens-bic.fr/
and https://www.chimie.ens.fr/recherche/laboratoire-lbm/peptides-glycoconjugues-metaux-biologie/bio-inorganic chemistry/

A recent talk: « De la chimie à la chimie du vivant », intervention au colloque « Pasteur le visionnaire » de l’Académie des Sciences, 8 décembre 2022 (‘Louis Pasteur, from chemistry to chemistry of life’, talk in French) https://tinyurl.com/3ebyv4d6

Short bio

Clotilde Policar was trained in organic, inorganic and physical chemistry, after which she specialized in bio-inorganic chemistry. After completing a Ph.D. under the supervision of Dr. Daniel Mansuy and Dr. Isabelle Artaud at Paris-Sud 11 and Paris 5 universities focused on mimics of a metalloprotein (manganese peroxidase), she worked as a post-doctoral fellow on high-field electron paramagnetic resonance to characterize complexes mimicking the Mn cluster from the oxygen evolving center in the photosystem II with Dr. Sun Un and Dr. William Rutherford. She was then appointed an assistant professor at Paris-Sud 11 (now Paris Saclay), where she dedicated her work to the development of Mn-complexes reproducing the activity of superoxide-dismutase (SOD). The initial focus was the spectroscopic characterization of Mn-OO adducts involved in the catalytic cycle for superoxide dismutation. She became an associate professor in 2005. Because the metalloproteins SODs are involved in the cellular protection against oxidative stress, the next step she took was to study these compounds in cellular models of oxidative stress. Since 2008, she has a professorship at the Ecole Normale Supérieure— University Paris Sciences et Lettres (ENS-PSL), where she has set up a thematic group in bioinorganic chemistry or more precisely in inorganic biological and cellular chemistry. This emerging thematic is dedicated to the direct study of inorganic compounds in biological environments. Her main current interests focus, on the one hand, on the design of manganese-based anti-oxidants and their evaluation in cells, combining characterization of the bio-activity, of the distribution (imaging) and of the speciation directly in cellular environment. On the other, her group has initiated a new topic with the development of metal-based probes, including metal–carbonyl as multimodal bioprobes and that they validated as efficient IR-probe for bio-imaging.

Professional experience

• Short CV and complete publications list on ORCID
• Oct-2021-Oct-2022: president elect of SBIC
  Since 2020: dean of the science education at the Ecole normale supérieure
  2019-2020: responsible of the two-year master programme in Chemistry and Life Science (parcours Chimie et sciences du vivant du master de chimie de Paris Centre)
  Since 2019: elected member of the SBIC council
  2017-2021: member of the editorial board of Journal of Inorganic Biochemistry
  2016-2020: deputy director of the Institut de Chimie du CNRS (DAS, directrice adjointe science) in charge of interdisciplinarity, member of the MITI-CNRS (mission pour les initiatives transverses et l’interdisciplinarité)
  2015-2017: member of the advisory board of Inorganic Chemistry (ACS)
  2015-2020: deputy chair of the FrenchBIC  (French network in BioInorganic Chemistry, network of 25 laboratories)
  2014-2020:  dean at the department of chemistry of ENS, co-responsible for the international relationships
  Since 2014:  deputy director of the Research Unit LBM
  2008: nomination as a professor at the ENS
  2005-2008: associate professor, Paris-Sud 11 university (now Paris Saclay)
  2005 (nov.): habilitation thesis, Paris-Sud 11 university
  1996-2005: assistant professor, Paris-Sud 11 university, Institut de Chimie Moléculaire et des Matériaux d’Orsay (ICMMO)

Education

• 1995-1996: post-doctoral fellow, CEA, department of cellular and molecular biology, group of William Rutherford and Sun Un (Multifrequency high spin electron paramagnetic resonance (9.5 – 285 GHz), study of Mn(III)-Mn(IV) complexes mimicking the Oxygen Evolving Center of photosystem II).
• 1992-1995: PhD under the supervision of Dr. Isabelle Artaud and Dr. Daniel Mansuy (Chemical modelling of the bimetallix active site of the metalloprotein manganese-peroxidase)
• 1988-1992: Student in the chemistry department at ENS-Paris Saclay (élève normalienne)
• 1991-1992: Graduate studies (DEA) in bioinorganic chemistry, Paris-Sud 11 university
• 1990-1991: Agrégation de sciences physiques option chimie (highest diploma to become a high-school teacher)

Research interests

• Bioinorganic chemistry
• Superoxide dismutase mimics (SOD mimics), superoxide, cellular models of oxidative stress, metal-based anti-oxidants
• Metal-carbonyles as multimodal probes for imaging: IR-spectromicroscopy, micro X-ray fluorescence and classical fluorescence
• Metals in biology: intracellular detection,  metal imaging, metal distribution, metal speciation
• Oxidative stress
• Therapeutic applications of metal-based anti-oxidants

About a recent article: https://www.inc.cnrs.fr/fr/cnrsinfo/des-complexes-bio-inspires-dans-le-vent
About an undergoing project funded by ANR (national research agency): https://www.ens.psl.eu/actualites/des-catalyseurs-bio-inspires-pour-lutter-contre-le-stress-oxydant

Awards, distinctions, scientific societies membership, and contracts

• Co-laureate of the prize of the Gay Lussac Federation of the Institut de France (2022, for chemistry at the heart of society’s challenges) (Académie des sciences prix 2022) Interview on the ENS website about this prize
• President elect of SBIC since October 2021.
• Elected member of the international council of the SBIC in October 2019.
• Member of the Société chimique de France and of the FrenchBIC.
• Research contracts since 2008:
  -ANR contracts (National Funding Agency) : two as a PI (CATMAN, 2020-2024 ; MAGIC, 2015-2021) ; four ANR contracts as a partner (MOBIDIC, PI P. Seksik (2022-2026) ; MnHFPELDOR, PI L. Tabares, 2012-2015, Take Care, PI M. Robert, 2011-13 ; Metabact, PI I. Artaud, 2011-13)
  -CEFIPRA contract (France-India collaboration, PI), 2022-2025
  -Qlife initiative: project MAIN (2021-2023) as PI (Mn-Based Antioxidant evaluation in INflammatory Epithelial Cells)
  -Research contract from FRM as PI (Fédération pour la recherche médicale, Appels Pionniers de la recherche Etudes Physico-chimiques innovantes pour la biologie et la médecine- 2016-2020)
  -Research fellowship from the Association François Aupetit (inflammatory bowel disease patients) obtained in 2015
  -Paris-Sciences-Lettres research contract for research structuration (PI, 2014-15; three partners : ESPCI and Institut Curie)
  -Paris-Sciences-Lettres pre-maturation fellowship (PI, 2015)
  -CNRS-contract Interdisciplinary work (interface chemistry-physic-biology), support for risky research (2009)
  -Young researcher grant (ACI jeune chercheur) (2005-08)
  -Since 2008: more than 15 projects selected on synchrotron beamlines (SOLEIL, APS, Aladdin).
• 1997: first prize “Creation” for the French Ministry of Research for the project Le ticket d’Archimède (posters of popularisation of science in the Parisian Metro), project directed by C. Policar from 1995 to 1998.

Supervised students and post-doctorants

• Formers (not yet available)
  CONGRATULATION to Sarah Hostachy, for her recruitment as a researcher at CEAEA-Grenoble (Sept. 2020), to Emilie Mathieu, for her CR-CNRS position (since Sept. 2021) in Toulouse, and Koudedja Coulibaly, for her recruitment at Air Liquide (Nov. 2021).
• Current:
  Namita John, PhD since October 2022, ANR fellowship
  Jean Bouvet, PhD since October 2020, co-supervized with Prof. S. Demignot (Centre of research of Hôpital Saint-Antoine, CRSA), IPV fellowship

Teaching

• Bioinorganic chemistry: M1 ENS-PSL et M1-M2 chimie et sciences du vivant (PSL university)
• Metals in biology: M2 master de chimie de Paris Centre (Sorbonne university and Paris Sciences et Lettres (PSL) university)
• PSL week 2022 Metallomix: les métaux des étoiles au vivant, co-organized with Nicolas Coltice.
  About the PSL weeks, weeks during which the students of PSL university take courses in other institutions than their own: see https://psl.eu/actualites/psl-weeks-etudiants-circulez-il-y-tout-voir
• History of Sciences: co-organisation of the annual conference day « Journée Bram » with the philosophy departement of ENS

A recent talk

« De la chimie à la chimie du vivant », intervention au colloque « Pasteur le visionnaire » de l’Académie des Sciences, 8 décembre 2022 (‘Louis Pasteur, from chemistry to chemistry of life’, alk in French) https://tinyurl.com/3ebyv4d6

Five significant publications

Deciphering the metal Speciation in Low-Molecular-Weight Complexes by ion mobility spectroscopy (IMS-MS): application to the detection of manganese superoxide dismutase mimics in cell lysates, Martha Zoumpoulaki, Gabrielle Schanne, Nicolas Delsuc, Hugues Preud’homme, Elodie Quévrain, Nicolas Eskenazi, Géraldine Gazzah, Regis Guillot, Philippe Seksik, Joelle Vinh, Ryszard Lobinski, Clotilde Policar Policar*, Angew. Chemie Int. Ed., e202203066, https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/anie.202203066 — hal-03699781

Intracellular location matters: rationalization of the anti-inflammatory activity of a manganese(II) superoxide dismutase mimic complex, Emilie Mathieu, Anne-Sophie Bernard, Elodie Quévrain, Martha Zoumpoulaki, Sébastien Iriart, Caroline Lung-Soong, Barry Lai, Kadda Medjoubi, Lucas Henry, Sounderya Nagarajan, Florent Poyer, Andrea Scheitler, Ivana Ivanović-Burmazović, Sergio Marco, Andrea Somogyi, Philippe Seksik, Nicolas Delsuc, Clotilde Policar, Chem. Commun., 2020, 56, 7885 – 7888, https://doi.org/10.1039/D0CC03398G

Graftable SCoMPIs enable the labeling and X-Ray fluorescence imaging of proteins, Sarah Hostachy, Marie Masuda, Takayuki Miki, Itaru Hamachi, Sandrine Sagan, Olivier Lequin, Kadda Medjoubi, Andrea Somogyi, Nicolas Delsuc and Clotilde Policar*, Chem. Sci. 2018, 9, 4483-4487, doi 10.1039/C8SC00886H

Entasis Through Hook-and-Loop Fastening in a Glycoligand with Cumulative Weak Forces Stabilizing Cu^I, Ludivine Garcia, Federico Cisnetti, Natacha Gillet, Régis Guillot, Magali Aumont-Niciase, Jean-Philip Piquemal, Michel Desmadril, François Lambert, Clotilde Policar*, J. Am. Chem. Soc., 2015, 137, 1141−1146, DOI: 10.1021/ja510259p

Subcellular Imaging in the Mid-IR of a Metal-Carbonyl Moiety using Photothermal Induced Resonance, Clotilde Policar*, Jenny-Birgitta Waern, Marie-Aude Plamont, Sylvain Clède, Céline Mayet, Rui Prazeres, Jean-Michel Ortega, Anne Vessières, Alexandre Dazzi, Angew. Chem., Int. Ed., 2011, 50, 860-864; doi : 10.1002/anie.201003161, Highlighted with an inside cover.

Publications (since 2008)

(NB: Complete publications list on ORCID)