University of Claude Bernard Lyon 1

The Laboratoire d’Automatique, de Génie des Procédés et de Génie Pharmaceutique (LAGEPP), UMR 5007 du CNRS

Under the supervision of the University of Lyon 1 and the CNRS, the Laboratoire d'Automatique, de Génie des Procédés et de Génie Pharmaceutique (LAGEPP) is a multidisciplinary laboratory covering the fields of process engineering, automation, product engineering, pharmaceutical engineering and physical chemistry. The aim of the laboratory is to conduct cross-disciplinary research projects involving researchers from different fields, while ensuring that high-level scientific work is maintained in each field. Research activities focus on two main scientific themes:

• Physicochemical processes and procedures in complex, dispersed and evolving environments (nanoparticle production processes, crystallisation, freeze-drying).

•  Dynamic modelling, observation and control of processes.

The work covers fundamental aspects of understanding and modelling phenomena through to product development in the pharmaceutical, cosmetics, energy and food sectors, etc.

LAGEPP is structured into four scientific teams that bring together researchers and lecturers specialising in the three key disciplines of automation, process engineering and pharmaceutical engineering. The teams benefit from the support of colleagues in the joint service, which is organised into the following departments: Administration and Finance, Project Engineering, Analysis and Instrumentation and IT.

LAGEPP is located on three sites: the main site on the Lyon-Tech La Doua campus (Villeurbanne), on the premises of ESCPE Lyon, at the Faculty of Pharmacy (Rockefeller site), and at the Biological Engineering IUT in Bourg en Bresse.

LAGEPP is developing numerous academic and industrial collaborations, in the form of institutional projects and direct contracts (10 ANR projects, 2 European projects, around ten ongoing industrial contracts).

The laboratory's scientific output includes more than 80 publications per year and 12 to 15 PhD graduates each year.

The Biometrics and Evolutionary Biology Laboratory (LBBE), UMR CNRS 5558

The Biometrics and Evolutionary Biology Laboratory (LBBE) was set up in 1966 by Jean-Marie Legay (1925-2012) with the aim of integrating biometrics (the quantitative study of living organisms) into the scientific process to answer questions in population biology. Jean-Marie Legay was a pioneer of interdisciplinarity in the life sciences, developing mathematical formalisation approaches to account for the organisation of complex biological systems. The development of the laboratory has been built on this concept of the scientific approach.

Today, the LBBE is based on three pillars: (i) biometrics, with methodological developments in statistics, computer science and mathematics for the modelling of living systems; (ii) ecology and evolution, approached from the molecular and genomic scale to the scale of populations and communities; (iii) health, by developing precision medicine and evidence-based medicine. The specificity of the laboratory stems from the synergy between methodological questions and issues in ecology, evolution and health, in order to develop a project on health and the dynamics and evolution of living organisms at all scales. In order to carry out scientific work centred on the themes of these 3 pillars and their interfaces, the LBBE is organised into four scientific departments, each of which comprises research teams.

Although our research is mainly fundamental, it is perfectly aligned with the major challenges facing society, which include the digital revolution and the accumulation of data, the Anthropocene and the associated environmental crisis, and the development of global health and unique health approaches.

The LBBE also has a strong training activity. We are involved in initial training at Lyon 1 University, where we contribute to teaching evolutionary biology at all levels, training health students and teaching methodology (statistics, bioinformatics, mathematics) to biologists. In addition to these teaching activities, the department is also responsible for undergraduate and postgraduate courses (Teaching). Some of our teacher-researchers are also involved in the initial training of biology technicians (IUT Génie Biologique Lyon 1) and veterinary surgeons (VetAgro Sup).

The Centre d’Etude des Substances Naturelles (CESN)

The activities of the centre d’Etude des Substances Naturelles (CESN) concern chemical ecology applied to biotic and abiotic interactions in the fields of ecology, the environment and health.

The staff associated with the platform seek to characterise the influence of environmental factors on the metabolic expression of a partner in a defined ecocystem. They help to understand the mechanisms involved in pathogenic or beneficial interactions such as symbioses (mutuaslistic or associative). Research prejects can lead to applications in the fields of animal or plant health and biocontrol.

The platform is developing expertise in :

• targeted and non-targeted metabolomics of plant, microbial and animal extracts (primary and secondary metabolism)

• bio-guided fractionation and structural analysis

• development of an HRMS and UV database of secondary metabolites 

• chemical characterisation and assessment of the biological role of natural substances

The platform has the skills and technical resources required for metabolomics approaches, from the extraction of metabolites from biological and environmental matrices to chemical analysis and data processing.