Lesaffre Works with Research Lab to Improve Fermentation
Lesaffre, a key global player in fermentation, and the Laboratory of Biology and Modelling of the Cell have renewed their partnership, which started in 2021. In this new collaboration, Lesaffre could benefit from new high-flow methods and a softwares allowing to define transcriptomic and genomic profiles of thousands of yeast strains, by relying on an advanced equipment – biofoundry – installed in the new Lesaffre Campus in Marcq-en-Baroeul.
The project named “baker yeast genomic analysis” consists in sharing Lesaffre and LBMC expertise in the genomic analysis field in order to develop an analysis method and a software tool necessary in yeast strains transcriptomic analysis and use it within Lesaffre R,D&I works.
In recent years, genomic scope has been completely transformed by the arrival of new sequencing techniques, commonly named NGS (for Next Generation Sequencing). The large data which is produced by NGS and its analysis requires dedicated informatic tools (bioinformatics). Generic tools are made available by the scientific community, but their usage requires a specific software implementation for each application and equipment.
The LBMC is currently developing a new high-flow analysis method, whose ambition is to be able to quantify in only a few days the transcriptomic profile of thousands of yeast strains. This development involves the setting of innovative experimental protocols and special software for NGS data analysis.
Lesaffre has been leading genetic and genomic research for several years now, which allows to understand physiological, cellular, and metabolic properties of microorganisms, especially yeasts. Lesaffre owns one of the most important private collections of yeast strains and plans to enrich and use it to its full potential.
In this context, R,D&I teams focus on establishing every yeast strain identity card in order to classify them and make their detailed description. Beyond genome characteristics, Lesaffre also tends to explore yeast cellular responses to mutations and environmental conditions.
“Thanks to the biofoundry installed in the new Lesaffre Campus, R,D&I teams are able to sequence yeasts strains with high flow,” says Mathieu Clément-Ziza, Head of Data Science and Bioinformatics at Lesaffre. “But it is essential to have new high-flow transcriptomic analysis methods. Thanks to this collaboration between the LBMC team specialised in Genetic complexity of living systems and Lesaffre experts, new experimental protocols and software tools necessary to these analyses could see the light of day in just over a year. ”
As part of the project, the main objective is to obtain a genomic analysis pipeline able to produce an “identity card” of every yeast strain, based on NGS raw data coming from this strain’s genome. Lesaffre will use this software to characterize industrial strains, and the LBMC in order to follow functional mutations of laboratory strains, within the process of molecular and basic cellular activity tests.
Also, this project will allow the implementation of high-flow transcriptomics in various functional exploration projects as part of Lesaffre works. For the LBMC, the aim is also to design the study of the distribution of effects of random mutations on gene expression regulation in controlled environments in laboratories.
At this stage, three experts within the LBMC oversee the experimental aspect, and the software conception requires the involvement of an additional person involvement. Also, in the context of governmental plan France Relance, both Lesaffre and the CNRS have been able to reinforce their partnership through a private-public collaborative research contract, which specificity is to support youth employment. During two years, a computational biology engineer will share his time between Lesaffre (60%) and the CNRS in order to develop these complex software tools, and the state will take in charge a part of his remuneration.