Fourth scientific meeting of ANR metasimfood project in Rennes

Published: Dec 12, 2023 by FME Lab

This time, the 7 partners gathered in Rennes this Tuesday 12th of December and were hosted by STLO at the Institut Agro.

After two years dedicated to prepare the food models for synthetic ecology (Wine and fermented vegetables), the project is now entering into the most exiting (but challenging) part dedicated to the screening of environmental factors and the design of microbial consortia. The project is now ready for integrating many omics data for ecological network modelling. Thanks to Florence Valence for hosting us and for managing the nice diner at crêperie l’épi de blé. We had lively discussions following the presentation of Elham Karimi on genome-scale modelling, minimal community design, key species, and the presentation of Mahendra Maraidassou on fractional factorial design and response surface modelling. The metasimfood project is truly inter-disciplinary, and is taking our teams into a new era of food microbiology.

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.