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Division of Biology and
Biological Engineering
Home  /  People  /  Adrien Burlacot

Adrien Burlacot

Faculty Associate in Biology and Biological Engineering
Research Summary
Adrien Burlacot’s research explores how algae capture and manage solar energy, with a particular focus on the mechanisms that balance photosynthetic energy production with CO₂ fixation under changing environmental conditions. Combining genetics, biophysics, and physiology, now at the single-cell level, his work seeks both to uncover the fundamental mechanisms that make algal photosynthesis efficient and resilient and to identify principles that could improve photosynthetic productivity and carbon capture
Profile

https://www.aburlacot.com/

Publications

- Doenier et al, 2026, A genome-wide CRISPR screen reveals how diatoms thrive in dynamic light, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.2532811123

- Saldivar et al, 2026, CO2 fixation mediated by the carbon concentrating mechanism enables a rapid response to nitrogen deprivation in cyanobacteria, BioRxiv, https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.64898/2026.05.20.726413v1.abstract

- Madireddi, Adler, Stoffel et al, 2025, Dynamic environments require photosynthetic electron flows with distinct bandwidths, Biorxiv https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2025.05.16.654609v2.abstract

- Dao et al, 2025, The green algae CO2 concentrating mechanism and photorespiration jointly operate during acclimation to low CO2, Nature Communications https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-60525-7

- Adler et al, 2024, Bestrophin-like protein 4 is involved in photosynthetic acclimation to light fluctuations in Chlamydomonas, Plant Physiology https://academic.oup.com/plphys/article/196/4/2374/7750452

- Peltier et al, 2024, Alternative electron pathways of photosynthesis power green algal CO2 capture, The Plant Cell https://academic.oup.com/plcell/article/36/10/4132/7671043

- Burlacot, 2023, Energy crosstalk between photosynthesis and the algal CO2-concentrating mechanisms, New Phytologist https://nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/nph.19328

- Burlacot et al, 2022, Alternative photosynthesis pathways drive the algal CO2-concentrating mechanism, Nature  https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-04662-9

- Burlacot et al, 2020, Membrane inlet mass spectrometry: a powerful tool for algal research, Frontiers in Plant Biology https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/plant-science/articles/10.3389/fpls.2020.01302/full

- Burlacot et al, 2020, Algal photosynthesis converts nitric oxide into nitrous oxide, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences https://www.pnas.org/doi/abs/10.1073/pnas.1915276117