BENOIT MARSAUX

My studies at Ecole Polytechnique Universitaire de Marseille (School of Advanced Studies in Biotechnology Engineering, France) sparkled my interest in microbiology and health challenges. I specialized in nutrition and food processing, and as a school project, co-authored a literature review on the effects of the gut microbiota on the brain damage. In order to complement my scientific education, I obtained a dual MSc degree in Design of Experiment and data analysis at Aix-Marseille University (France), both diploma obtained in 2016.

In 2016, I was a Research Assistant trainee at Danone for 6 months (Life Sciences, Paris, France) in a partnership project with Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. It allowed me to deepen my knowledge of probiotics and increased my interest in understanding the gut microbiota and its impact on human health. My project was to develop a new in vitro system modelling bacterial lysis, in order to better determine which bacteria to select for next generation probiotic-containing products, under the supervision of Dr. Patrick Veiga and Dr. Nadège Adouard.

In 2017 and 2018, I was a Research Assistant at Nestlé (Food Biotechnology, Konolfingen, Switzerland). I have intensively reinforced my knowledge on the gut microbiota and the fermentation processing. My work at Nestlé is summarized in a patent on synbiotic processing and how to strengthen up their beneficial health effect, under the supervision of Dr. Biljana Bogicevic and Dr. Guénolée Prioult.

Since June 2019, I have joined the R&D department of ProDigest (Gent, Belgium) and the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering at Gent University (Prof. Tom Van De Wiele) as ESR working on the FunHoMic project. I will be involved in adapting the in vitro SHIME technology platform to assess the interplay between fungi and bacteria in the human gut. The aim is to characterize the mycobiome associated to the SHIME and adapt it to the human one. On a later stage, a stable C. albicans-infection model will developed, so that finally the effect of specific treatment can be assessed in preventing or curing Candida infections.