Mars used to be habitable, and we are looking for traces of ancient life with several rover missions (Curiosity, Perseverance, Rosalin Franklin). However, when Mars lost its protective magnetic field and atmosphere around 4 billion years ago, it became exposed to heavy radiation potentially affecting biosignatures preservation.

Working with organic rich natural samples, I am investigating (1) the transformation of biosignatures by cosmic rays (see publications), (2) the mineralogies that seem to be preferential for preservation, and (3) the impact of hydration of the sample on biosignatures preservation.

With Dr. Alexander Pavlov’s team, at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, MD, I am working on irradiation experiments of amino acids standards (see publications).

I am optimizing and experimenting on the flight instrument prototype Europan Molecular Indicators of Life Investigation (EMILI) conducted by Dr. William Brinckerhoff at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, MD.

As part of the “Laboratory for Agnostics Biosignatures” project, I am exploring how mass spectral fragmentation is related to the complexity of a molecule using a MALDI ion trap mass spectrometer with a tandem mass spectrometry (MS-MS) at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, MD.

For my Master's thesis, I conducted research on hydrocarbon biomarker (hopanes, steranes, carotenoids) preservation in the South Oman Salt Basin, in the Summons Lab (see publications).

I had the chance to be part of the International Geobiology Course in 2019, with Dr. Alex Sessions, Dr. Victoria Orphan, and Dr. Woody Fisher. After training in field techniques, we were exposed to a variety of scientific approaches at Caltech (microscopy, IRMS, XRD, SIMS and NanoSIMS, SEM and TEM). Our group project was focused on biosignature preservation in ancient methane seeps.