Characterisation of organic micropollutants and their transformation products in ecosystems using high-resolution mass spectrometry

A 24-month postdoctoral position in analytical and environmental chemistry is available in the LPTC team of the EPOC laboratory (University of Bordeaux/CNRS, UMR 5805).

Hosting unit: University of Bordeaux, EPOC UMR 5805 CNRS, LPTC team, Bâtiment A12, 351 crs de la Libération, 33405 Talence. https://www.epoc.u-bordeaux.fr/index.php?lang=fr&page=recherche

Contacts: Hélène Budzinski (helene.budzinski@u-bordeaux.fr) and Marie-Hélène Dévier (marie-helene.devier@u-bordeaux.fr).

Working environment: The EPOC laboratory (Oceanic and Continental Environments and Paleoenvironments, UMR 5805 CNRS/University of Bordeaux) is a multidisciplinary research unit focusing on coastal and littoral geosystems and the functioning and dysfunctioning of environmental ecosystems. It is made up of 7 teams working in various fields of research, including coastal dynamics, ecotoxicology, environmental chemistry, ecology, ecophysiology, geochemistry and biogeochemistry.

The work of the LPTC team (Physico- and Toxico-Chemistry of the Environment) concerns the study of the presence, transport and inter-compartment transfer, reactivity, bioaccumulation and biotransformation phenomena and the impact of organic contaminants at the molecular level. With this in mind, part of its research activity is focused on the analytical developments needed to analyse organic contaminants in the various environmental compartments (water-air-soil) at the ultra-trace level. Original methodologies are thus developed to search for and characterise organic micropollutants, as well as to study their interaction with dissolved organic matter, for example. In addition, many research works are conducted to study the biotic and abiotic phenomena that condition the presence and transformation (reactivity in homogeneous and heterogeneous phases) of chemical contaminants. Finally, the LPTC is studying the mechanisms that condition their toxicity, in particular the link between presence and observed effects (EDA: "Effect-Directed Analysis" approach).

Offer description:

The need to better characterise the chemical exposome and its effects on the health of organisms and ecosystems has become essential for assessing environmental hazards and risks, predicting responses and anticipating adaptive trajectories. In this respect, chemical profiling approaches using high-resolution mass spectrometry (GC- and LC-HRMS) have opened up new opportunities for understanding the chemical exposome, the complex relationship between exposure and the biological effects observed, and more recently also for identifying transformation products (TPs). One of the major challenges of this approach still lies in processing the thousands of data sets generated, despite the constant evolution of treatment and chemoinformatics software and tools, both manufacturers and open source.

These non-target approaches will be developed and implemented here in a global environmental context, and therefore both multi-pressure (wastewater treatment plant effluents, endocrine disruptors, pesticides, etc.) and multi-compartment (water, air, soil, biota). They will contribute to improving our knowledge of the nature, origin and fate of micropollutants (MPs) and their TPs in ecosystems. The post-doctoral researcher will contribute to the development of HRMS (acquisition and reprocessing) methodologies, the characterization of MPs and their TPs and the monitoring of emerging pollutants and their PTs in the various environmental compartments. This work will be integrated into various research projects of the team, involving this NTS approach, including the ANR TRANSPRO but also the European project MARSURE. It is also proposed to improve the prioritization and identification strategy based on the use of various software packages, either from manufacturers or available on the Internet.

The specific tasks of the proposed post-doctoral work will be:

- improve the GC-QTOF, LC-QTOF and LC-IM-QTOF analytical methodologies implemented in the team,

- develop new ones adapted to recent advances, both instrumental and computational, particularly in machine learning (depending on the expertise of the candidate),

- To optimise workflows of data treatment, the aim of which is to contribute to better data prioritization to detect and identify environmentally relevant MPs and TPs (potentially through the implementation of machine learning methods),

- apply these methodologies (in suspect and non-target modes) to the identification and monitoring of emerging pollutants and their relevant TPs in aquatic, terrestrial and atmospheric ecosystems,

- ensure technical and scientific monitoring and participate in the writing of scientific publications and their promotion at conferences.

He/she will carry out this research work in the LPTC team (UMR EPOC, Univ. Bordeaux), in close interaction with the project managers and the engineers responsible for the analytical facilities. The LPTC has an excellent analytical infrastructure (PLATINE : environmental organic analytical chemistry platform) with state-of-the-art equipment, in particular many gas and liquid chromatography systems (GC and LC) coupled with low- and high-resolution mass spectrometry (QQQ, IRMS, TOF, QTOF, IM-QTOF) and automatic sample preparation systems (samplers, extractors, SPE automatons, on-line SPE, SPME, SBSE, etc.).

Duration: 24 months, with possibility of renewal.