Contact details

Dr. Anaïs Cario
CNRS researcher
Supercritical Fluids Group
Institute of Condensed Matter Chemistry of Bordeaux
87 avenue du docteur Albert Schweitzer, 33607, Pessac cedex, France
Phone: +33 5 40 00 63 37
Email: anais.cario@icmcb.cnrs.fr

ORCID code: 0000-0001-9760-4860
Researchgate : https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Anais-Cario
Linkedin : https://fr.linkedin.com/in/anaïs-cario-1a5723174

Short biography

Anaïs Cario (CNRS researcher – CRCN) has a recognized expertise the investigation of the eco-physiology of deep-sea microorganisms using high-pressure cultivation devices (23 publications / 2 patents / 45 oral communications – 8 international invited, 2 keynotes). During her PhD work, she acquired strong skills in ecophysiology of marine microorganisms by deciphering the molecular adaptation mechanisms of deep-sea microorganisms isolated from deep-sea vents. Then, as a postdoctoral associate in the Rogers lab at RPI (NY USA), she developed a unique expertise in high-pressure microbiology. During this postdoc, she showed that decompression steps were deleterious for deep microorganisms, not only for the sampling and cultivation steps, but also for the metabolism investigations, as deep-sea microorganisms work efficiently at elevated pressure.

Anaïs Cario joined the Institut de Chimie de la Matière Condensée de Bordeaux (ICMCB-CNRS) as a postdoctoral researcher in 2017 in the frame of the ERC BIG MAC project and then as a CNRS researcher in 2021, permanent position), where she learned and developed high-pressure microfluidic tools adapted to the cultivation and the study of deep microorganisms under pressure conditions without decompression, at lab scale. Her current research activity is focused on the development of unique multi-scale in situ high-pressure approaches to better understand deep microbial roles in their environments. Her goal is to expand the current knowledge of this deep biosphere and propose new solutions for various environmental applications. One of her research projects involves using high-pressure devices to evaluate the impact of microplastics on microbial activity by adjusting the pressure, a crucial factor influencing the metabolic activity of deep-sea microorganisms. By examining the interactions between microplastics and deep-sea microbial communities, the research could potentially identify microbial strains capable of degrading plastic pollutants in the deep ocean.

Since her recruitment, she leads the high-pressure microbiology topics at ICMCB (complementary approach to the group’s and lab thematics). She participates(ed) as collaborator or task leader in several projects (ANR, NASA).

List of selected ongoing projects :

• PLASTIS (MITI AAP, 2024-2025) – P.I - «Characterization of Interactions Between Microplastics and the Deep Marine Biosphere Using a Multi-Scale High-Pressure Approach»

• PLASDEEP (ANR AAP 2025 – under evaluation) – Coordinator and task leader (P.I. P. Vannier, MAPIEM Toulon, France) – «Plastic biodegradation in the deep-sea: a microbial community exploration»