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 talks about 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 professionals, basic research and engineering… He has put this model into practice with the master’s programs in engineering (CMI). These selective programs, launched in 2012 under the leadership of Gilles Halbout, former dean of the Faculty of Sciences, offer project-based learning to small classes of about twenty students.“At the University of Montpellier, we’ve 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,” explains 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 develop a coherent five-year curriculum comprising more than 70 course units.

Carnot Prize for “a tremendous success”

“The CMI’s unique teaching approach puts students in the role of project leaders tasked with solving environmental, health, food, and 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 designation, 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 grapevine prunings 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, as well as 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 building 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 rich educational environment for our students,”says Christian Jay-Allemand. In addition to earning him the Carnot Prize in 2022, this project has been 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 groups.“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 businesses. These large corporations’ strategies follow their own logic, which doesn’t align with that of research. Moreover, they don’t offer employment prospects to ourstudents,”the professor states firmly.

Promising molecular signatures

This year, as the latest graduating class of the CMI BBB graduates, Christian Jay-Allemand champions“the strength of our academic division, 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’s in wood science. It is an interdisciplinary master’s program in terms of student recruitment—with students coming from biology, chemistry, as well as mechanical engineering and architecture—and in terms of instruction, involving 45 faculty members and about 100 participating companies.“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 finding a use for its sawmill wastewater. A special study was launched, focusing on the recovery of tannins from wood, ”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. Changes in a protein’s light emission, for example, provide insight into inhibitory actions. In recent years, this research has focused on the 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 focus is on developing agroforestry projects combined with biotechnology in collaboration with municipalities in the Hérault department, as well as his desire to see a startup emerge 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, removed.“A very promising tool that can find many applications for enriching or detoxifying an environment,”says the enterprising professor.