1st annual meeting of metasimfood project.

Published: Jan 12, 2023 by FME Lab

The 1st annual meeting of metasimfood project took place in Strasbourg last thursday 12th of january. Follow the news using our project website.

The meeting was organised by Aérial partner and began the evening before, with a very convivial dinner in an emblematic “brasserie” in front of the cathedral; then by a hard day’s work on the site of Aérial in Illkirsch. This day was organised around the assessment of the work of WP1: construction of the food models and WP2: construction of artificial microbial communities and to start the planning of the work of WP3: ecological network modelling; which will start in 6 months.

During lunch break, metasimfood partners were able to enjoy a guided tour of the impressive infrastructure (Feerix), unique in Europe, allowing advanced R&D in the field of decontamination with the Rhodotron (electron accelerator).

From “synthetic” to defined microbial communities for clearer terminology

Stéphane Chaillou participated in a joint reflection with a group of international researchers, coordinated by the Austrian Institute of Technology (AIT), on the terminology used to describe certain microbial communities. The collective of experts proposes replacing the term “synthetic community” (or SynCom), sometimes perceived negatively, with “Defined Microbial Community”.

Harnessing gut microbiome diversity for next-generation fermented foods

On June 5, 2026, Julien Tap participated in the INRAE-Tokyo NODAI Joint Symposium on Fermentation and Food Bioscience. This online event brought together researchers from INRAE and the Tokyo University of Agriculture to discuss fermentation microbiology, food bioscience, taste, and microbiome-based approaches to health. More than 100 participants attended the symposium, most of them Japanese students, highlighting the strong interest of the next generation in fermentation and microbiome science.

DOMINO 3rd annual meeting in Madrid

After three years, the #DominoEU project has reached full speed, with significant results across all project objectives. The three-day meeting provided an opportunity to review the very busy year of 2025 and the many key findings that can be leveraged in the coming months.