The DuPont Nutrition & Health Microbiome Venture has partnered with INRA (French National Institute for Agricultural Research) to decipher the molecular mechanisms of action of DuPont’s probiotic strains through a functional metagenomics approach.
This partnership was done through both the Micalis Institute and MetaGenoPolis, a pre-industrial demonstrator.
INRA has developed and validated a high-throughput screening platform to test the effect of large DNA fragment in genomic or metagenomic libraries on intestinal epithelial cell lines modified with reporter gene technology.
This allows the screening of genomic and metagenomic clones on various reporter systems targeting pathways involved in homeostasis, metabolism, immune control as well as enteroendocrine cell activation.
“Following our partnerships with APC Cork to discover new strains for maternal and infant health and with the Center of Food and Fermentation Technologies (TFTAK) in Tallinn, Estonia, to understand the ‘culturability’ of next-generation probiotics, we are nicely complementing our set of capabilities by adding the understanding of the DuPont Danisco probiotics’ mechanisms of action on human health at a molecular level,” said microbiome venture leader Sebastien Guery
INRA will help DuPont define the molecular mechanisms of action of DuPont Danisco probiotic strains.
DuPont established the Microbiome Venture to accelerate microbiome science-based solution development through partnerships with microbiome science leaders and internal investments.
This new partnership will be part of the Qualiment network, which has been awarded the ‘Carnot Institute’ label of excellence.
Qualiment is a network of research institutes and universities created to provide the necessary scientific and technological resources to support companies in developing new food products with higher sensory and nutritional qualities and for a sustainable alimentation.
