A researcher, research director at INRAe, and later a professor at the University of Montpellier, Christian Jay-Allemand has had the career of an accomplished scientist. Yet when he speaks of his journey as a biologist, he doesn’t paint the picture of a researcher in a lab, but rather that of a complex network that brings together disciplines and teams, students and industry partners, basic research and engineering… He has put this model into practice with the Master’s in Engineering (CMI) programs. These selective programs, launched in 2012 under the leadership of Gilles Halbout, former director of the Faculty of Sciences, offer project-based learning to small cohorts of about twenty students.“At the University of Montpellier, we have established eight programs in biology, biotechnology, optoelectronics, chemistry, mechanical engineering, computer science, and more. Eight CMI programs but a single teaching team to promote this model and mentor passionate students,” says Christian Jay-Allemand, who is full of praise for these programs. As director of the CMI BBB (Biotechnology-Bioresources-Biotraceability), he has worked with his colleagues to build a coherent educational framework over five years, comprising more than 70 course units.

Carnot Prize for "a tremendous success"

“ The CMI’s unique pedagogical approach places students in the role of project leaders to solve environmental, health, food, or other issues. These problems are sometimes proposed directly by local companies, which thus play an active role in the training,” emphasizes the director, who acknowledges that the CMI label, awarded by the national FIGURE network, opens many doors for young graduates—which, incidentally, sometimes makes it difficult to retain them after they complete their bachelor’s degree. From this journey, Christian Jay-Allemand highlightsone “truly remarkable success”in particular: the founding of the company Antofénol by Fanny Rolet.“This former student came to us with her project to repurpose vine shoots to produce natural fungicides. ” A project that combines microbiology and chemistry to confirm the vine’s fungicidal potential and identify the processes for extracting and concentrating the active substances, but also mechanics and engineering to invent the machine capable of extracting these fungicides. All the ingredients are therefore in place to put interdisciplinarity and public-private partnerships to the test.

It was a success, as the UMR IATE (Agro-polymer Engineering and Emerging Technologies) is working on the biology and chemistry aspects in collaboration with Luc Bidel ofINRAe, and with Bernard Orsal’s team at the Institute of Electronics and Systems (IES), which is focused on manufacturing a prototype eco-extraction system based on microwave and ultrasound technology.“This project functioned as a sort of Lab-Com where Professors, researchers, and engineers formed a very close-knit team combining fundamental and applied approaches and providing a highly enriching training environment for our students,”says Christian Jay-Allemand. In addition to earning him the Carnot Prize in 2022, this project is an industrial success: the company Antofenol has established a 20-person plant in Plestan, Brittany, while maintaining a private research team at the heart of the laboratory, composed of former master’s and doctoral students.

Building bridges between academia and local businesses is a very promising path for someone who has had firsthand experience with collaborations involving major industrial conglomerates.“For example, I worked with the international Solvay Group. The collaboration turned out to be very siloed and created difficulties for our doctoral student.  That experience made me think a lot about our relationship with companies. These large corporations’ strategies follow their own logic, which doesn’t align with that of research. Plus, they don’t offer job prospects to ourstudents,”the professor states.

Promising molecular signatures

This year, as the latest class of the CMI BBB graduates, Christian Jay-Allemand champions“the strength of our academic cluster, which thrives on these links between education and research and is gradually transforming our way of thinking and operating. Although I acknowledge that not all of my academic colleagues share this view. ” This methodology is nevertheless maintained in the new bachelor’s and master’s programs, such as the Master of Science in Wood Science. An interdisciplinary master’s program in terms of student recruitment—attracting students from biology, chemistry, but also mechanical engineering and architecture—and in teaching, with 45 faculty members and about a hundred companies involved.“This master’s program maintains this project-based approach in collaboration with local companies. For example, the company Neofor in Mende invited students to work on the recovery of its sawmill wastewater. A dedicated study was launched, focusing on the recovery of wood tannins, ”he explains.

Regarding his research, Christian Jay-Allemand has maintained a consistent focus since completing his Ph.D. at the University of Montpellier in 1985. The researcher has continually sought to understand, at the cellular level, the biological mechanisms underlying interactions between phenolic molecules and proteins—interactions observed, in particular, through the study of fluorescence. Variations in the protein’s light emission, for example, provide insight into inhibitory actions. In recent years, this research has focused on interactions between polyphenols and enzymatic proteins with the aim of identifying new cellular functions.

Even though he’s starting to think about retirement, Christian Jay-Allemand’s eyes still sparkle when he talks about what’s next. His sights are set on developing agroforestry projects combined with biotechnology in collaboration with municipalities in the Hérault region, and he hopes to see the emergence of a startup that would capitalize on the results of the Esbac project (Selective Eco-extraction of Active Biomolecules), launched in 2018 with the company Antofénol. Managed by the University of Montpellier, this project has developed molecular imprints designed to capture molecules so they can then be concentrated or, conversely, eliminated.“A very promising tool that can find many applications for enriching or detoxifying an environment,”envisions the enterprising professor.