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Christian Jay-Allemand (UM) and Luc Bidel (INRAE) win the 2022 Carnot Grand Prize for collaborative research

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Christian Jay-Allemand (UM) and Luc Bidel (INRAE), both researchers at the IATE laboratory (Agro-Polymer Engineering and Emerging Technologies), won the Carnot Grand Prize for Research . Their project, called ESBAC (“Selective Ecoextraction of Active Biomolecules”), aims to develop, in collaboration with the company Antofenol, natural antifungal agents for the agri-food industry. The prize, accompanied by a cash award of 10,000 euros, was presented by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research during the Carnot Fair held in Paris on October 12 and 13.

Minimizing Food Spoilage

Natural antifungals help limit food spoilage caused by pathogenic fungi. These fungi have become a major concern in the agri-food sector, and the question of how to reduce these losses—
—is increasingly being raised, particularly with regard to post-harvest losses (linked specifically to the activities of cooperatives) that rely on petrochemical-based fungicides.

The work of Christian Jay-Allemand and Luc Bidel aimed to find a solution to this problem. The objective was to enrich a complex plant extract—obtained through eco-extraction of crushed grapevine shoots—with molecules of interest, using a prototype initially developed by the company Antofénol in close collaboration with the IES (Bernard Orsal, UM) and our laboratory. The ESBAC project is based on two objectives. First, to identify the family of phenolic active molecules capable of inhibiting various pathogenic fungi responsible for post-harvest food spoilage. Second, to develop a new pre-industrial process based on molecular imprints (MIPs) capable of selectively enriching complex extracts derived from woody biomass with target molecules. The ultimate goal is not only to demonstrate the efficacy of extracts from vine wood (
) according to grape variety but also to ensure the quality of commercialized extracts, which is directly linked to their antifungal activity. This success and the award of the Carnot Prize are the result of substantial collaborative work, which drew its scientific momentum from strong links between research and university education and will ultimately lead to processes suited for industrial development.

A project made possible by close interdisciplinary collaboration between the University of Montpellier and the company Antofenol

Antofenol, a company founded on our Triolet university campus in 2016, specializes in plant-based eco-extraction for the development of biocontrol products (natural extracts that can replace pesticides). This partnership between Antofenol and the University of Montpellier began in 2012, driven by the decisive initiative of Fanny Rolet, a graduate of our DTEC-Bio Master’s program (now IBION-Tec) and CEO of Antofenol. The company, which became a priority partner ofUM 2018 through the creation of the ESBAC project, helped secure a total budget of over €370,000, managed by the University of Montpellier
, to develop new strategies and technological methods for enriching complex extracts based on molecular fingerprints. The project is also co-funded by the Occitanie Region and the European Union. These strong links between education, research, and innovation/business are the foundation of Antofenol’s success. It is undoubtedly both a human R&D endeavor based on interdisciplinary expertise of the highest caliber (management, plant biology, metabolism, polyphenols, optoelectronics, machining, etc.) and a dynamic operational system—rare within an optimized laboratory environment—that fully integrates this partnership.

The Carnot Grand Prize in a Nutshell

The Carnot Prize for Research , created by the Association of Carnot Institutes, is intended to highlight outstanding initiatives by its members in the field of research partnerships between a Carnot Institute and a company, in order to recognize the researchers who initiated such partnerships. Several awards were presented during the 2022 Rendez-vous Carnot, including awards for a partnership led by a young researcher, a collaborative research project supporting the creation of a spin-off, a collaborative research project with an SME or mid-sized company, and finally, a long-term partnership (3 years or more), for which the University won the award. Each award is presented personally to the researcher or team in charge of the partnership (prizes of 5,000 and 10,000 €).

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