Partner 1: INRAE BIA

https://ur-bia.angers-nantes.hub.inrae.fr/

BIA (Biopolymers, Interactions, Assemblies) is an INRAE's Research Unit dedicated to the sustainable transformation of agricultural resources and plant biomass. The scope of his research covers the entire processing chain of these resources, from construction during plant development to deconstruction during their final use.

The BIA unit investigates properties of biopolymers in food products, with a focus on cereal products, through experimental and modeling approaches. The unit has unique expertise in the characterization of plant biopolymers (starch, cell wall polysaccharides, and proteins), lipids and polyphenols. Advanced types of equipment (chemotyping, NMR) are available at Biopolymers, Structural Biology” analytical platform (BIBS), which is certified ISO 9001. S. Le Gall who manages the chemotyping activity of BIBS is particularly involved in the characterizations of grains and flours with new descriptors (WP3), with X. Falourd, L. Foucat & C. Deborde (RMN characterization), V. Lollier (bioinformatics).

Besides, knowledge-based systems and literature-based modeling have been developed in the unit by K. Kansou and G. Della Valle especially on cereal products as well as robust phenomenological models of interest for the food sector. This expertise will be used for the conception of the Knowledge-Based System and evaluation tools (WP4 and WP5).

Dr. Luc Saulnier is the scientific coordinator of the project. For the last 20 years, he has been mainly working on cereal cell wall polysaccharides in relation to their various fields of applications and their nutritional impact as dietary fiber. With a strong background in biochemistry and physicochemical properties of polysaccharides, he has largely contributed to understanding the relationship between the structure and the function of arabinoxylans one of the major cell wall polysaccharides of cereal grains. He is assisted by Magalie Weber for project management and communication.