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).

HoloGen symposium on microbial meta-community modeling

On October 21, 2026, Julien Tap participated as an invited speaker in the Microbial Meta-Community Modeling symposium, organized by Karoline Faust at the Rega Institute, KU Leuven, Belgium, as part of the HoloGen doctoral network retreat.

Fermented foods at the Fête de la science Paris-Saclay 2026

On October 3–4, 2026, Stéphane Chaillou and Alice Lima took part in the Village des sciences at ENS Paris-Saclay for the Fête de la science, France’s annual science festival. This year’s theme, “Saveurs savantes”, invited visitors to explore the science behind food and flavour.

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”.