Visit of IJPB and IFPN

On March 24th 2023, the 3rd intake Bioceb students spending the semester in AgroParisTech had the opportunity to meet scientific experts in biotechnologies during a whole day of visits organised in the framework of the “Bioenergies and lignocelluloses” course. Held in the Versailles INRAE site, the morning session was dedicated to plant biotechnologies. After a general presentation of the Institut Jean-Pierre Bourgin (IJPB) mixed Research Unit by Stéphanie Baumberger, the students met Herman Höfte, a Research Director specialist in plant science, who gave a talk on crops that can be used as a source of biomass for biorefineries. He raised awareness on the necessity to consider for crops selection regional specificities, as well as environmental and agronomical constraints. Moreover, he provided examples of multidisciplinary research projects relative to the local development of value chains for dedicated crop like Miscanthus. The lecture stimulated exchanges on the interest of exploiting plants’ natural or induced variations.

Herman Höfte with the students of the “Bioenergies and lignocelluloses” course (Institut Jean-Pierre Bourgin, Versailles, 24th March 2023)

In the afternoon, the students were transferred to IFPEN (IFP Energies Nouvelles) in Rueil Malmaison where they discovered the labs and activities of the Biotechnology division. They were welcomed by an AgroParisTech alumnus, Etienne Jourdier, who is leading the synthetic biology group. Through the visit, the students discovered the great potential of the fungus Trichoderma reesei for the deconstruction of lignocelluloses. They were also given examples of metabolic engineering for the microbial production of bio-based molecules.

This on-field day closed this one-week course shared with students from the AgroParisTech 2nd year engineer curriculum.