Lysiane Dunière, Ruminant Center of Excellence: “The trust that the company gives us allows us to really work on disruptive projects.”

Meet our researcher: Lysiane Dunière, Ph.D., Research Scientist, Ruminant Center of Excellence

• Based in France
• Ph.D. in 2012 from university Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand
• Areas of expertise: microbiology, silage

 

Lysiane, tell us a bit about yourself, why did you choose to be a researcher?

I’ve always been interested in biology. When I was at school, it was one of the subjects that I really enjoyed.

After high school graduation, I went to a biology college and then to an agri-food engineering school. The “health through nutrition” side was also something that really caught my attention. From there, I started studying microbiology and wrote my thesis on silage in collaboration with Lallemand. That’s how I met Frédérique Chaucheyras-Durand and collaborated with the INRAe.

It really confirmed that this was the kind of job I wanted: being a researcher — but also to have a dual role, which means being in the field (not doing only fundamental research) and also being surrounded by academics (thanks to our partnership with the INRAe).

After my thesis, I went to do my postdoc in Canada but stayed in touch with Frédérique, who told me there was a job opening at the Ruminant Center of Excellence: I applied and started working for Lallemand again!

On a personal note, what I’m really keen about is ecology, nature, which translates into the sports I practice: hiking and climbing. A few years back, I did the GR20, a hike through Corsica, which lasts 15 days! To me, this is linked to my job — ecology and nature — and also to Lallemand. With probiotics, we’re always trying to find an alternative to antibiotics and promote sustainable solutions for animal health and performance.

 

What is exciting about your job?

What I really like is that my job, even though it revolves around ruminants, is diversified. I worked on silage projects, on biofilm — I’m never bored!

Some projects are very long. For example, the project I’m working on right now started two years ago because it’s a huge study with several experiments and analysis. That’s also what makes my job really interesting. After two years, we gathered all of our data, and we are going to make it public! That’s the big difference from being only an academic: their only diffusion channel is through other scientists. My job is a mix of sharing information with our academic partners and also working with our marketing teams and our clients.

 

What makes Lallemand Centers of Excellence different?

The trust that the company gives us, by having scientists in multiple public structures in different locations, allows to really work on disruptive projects that we maybe wouldn’t be able to do internally.

At the INRAe, we have access to all of its tools and its knowledge. We can really exchange with our academic colleagues about our different projects. It generates a lot of ideas and collaborations that just come naturally and easily!

An important part of our company budget goes into R&D at Lallemand, which gives us a lot of opportunities. It’s a big strength of Lallemand, and it allows us to set up fundamental projects on mechanisms comprehension, microbial interactions, and more. Understanding how our probiotics work offers great scientific credibility in the field. We study them a lot and believe in our research.

The fact that we have a well-known partnership like the one we have with the INRAe, gives us also great credibility.