Angela Falciatore’s laboratory “Chloroplast Biology and Light-sensing in Microalgae” at the Institut de Biologie Physico-Chimique in Paris is affiliated with the  the CNRS and Sorbonne University and it is  dedicated to the study of light-driven processes (photosynthesis and photoperception) and chloroplast biology. It addresses key questions on the biology, evolution and ecology of microalgae by focusing on different molecular model systems (e.g. Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and diatoms) and ecologically relevant phytoplanktonic species, studied with ecophysiological, biophysical, biochemical, genomic and genetic approaches. 

Samuel Chaffron is a computational biologist at CNRS in the Digital Sciences Laboratory of Nantes (LS2N), within the COMBI team. He is a member of the Tara Oceans consortium. 

Chris Bowler heads the Plant and Algal Genomics lab at the Institut de Biologie de l’Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris. Major advances in diatom biology are represented by the development of methodologies for gene manipulation, as well as the complete sequencing of diatom genomes. Over recent years, the lab has also used genome-enabled approaches to better understand diatom responses to environmental signals, such as light and nutrients, including nitrogen and iron. The lab has also participated in the Tara Oceans expedition, a four-year circumnavigation of the world’s oceans to explore the functional biodiversity of marine microscopic life.