Micro-guts for the study of translocation of microplastic

The presence of micro and nanoplastics is now documented in the drinking water, ocean, marine invertebrates and fishes.

Their toxicity for humans is still mostly unknown, as well as their capacity to translocate through the gut barrier, especially since it depends strongly on the size, shape, surface state, material of these plastics, which are strongly heterogeneous or even contaminated by organic or toxic compounds.

In this project, I propose to develop new in-vitro systems in order to quantify the translocation of environmental nano and microplastics obtained from plastic wastes, through the gut epithelial barrier.

This proposal includes the development of 1- microphysiological systems mimicking that barrier and 2- detection techniques for the characterization of micro and nanoplastics directly inside biological tissues (Raman-SERS, SEM, AFM, confocal microscopy) or in liquids.