Ever since he was little, Benoît has always been fascinated by science experiments. He was a "first-generation college student" – no one in his family had been to university before –, and step by step he worked his way up to a career in research.
He is a natural-born educator who is passionate about his subject, and he wants science to be open to everyone.
His current focus is studying and measuring the impact of diet, especially certain additives, on the gut flora. His team analyzes the effects of emulsifying agents on microbial biodiversity in relation to chronic conditions such as Crohn's disease, diabetes and obesity. Benoît believes that in future his research may contribute to a personalized approach to medicine aimed at restoring the diversity of the microbiota in response to the effects of modern diets.
Holidays on the farm, university and United States
Family background always tells a story: while Louis Pasteur was the son of a tanner in the Jura region, Benoît is the grandson of tradesmen and farmers from central France. He spent his holidays on the farm, learning to milk cows, bottle-feed calves and produce good cheese! He discovered science at high school and became increasingly fascinated by the subject during his university studies.
I have always been interested in science in a broad sense, and I still remember a book called Mega Experiments that my parents gave me. I must have been 9 or 10, and it gave me the chance to try out my first science experiments!
In the laboratory led by Professor Arlette Darfeuille-Michaud, Benoît completed a PhD on the gut bacteria Escherichia coli. For his postdoctoral studies he headed to the United States. In Professor Andrew Gewirtz's laboratory, he discovered the gut microbiota, a complex ecosystem with multiple impacts on human health. In 2017, following his postdoc he started his own unit at Georgia State University in Atlanta.
Back to Paris for research on chronic gut diseases
After securing a Starting Grant from the European Research Council, Benoît relocated his research and his laboratory to France, keen to adopt a more translational approach. His team performed clinical trials using patient samples and successfully demonstrated the key role played by gut bacteria associated with the intestinal mucus, a gel-like substance that lines the gut, in the onset of various chronic inflammatory diseases.
Cardboard boxes, a team and billions of bacteria
Now happily settled in his new laboratory with his entire team, Benoît is delighted to pursue his research at the Institut Pasteur in Paris, surrounded by his peers and with the opportunity to work alongside a wide range of specialists and extend his research to the mechanistic and immunological aspects of microbiota–gut interactions.
In line with the Institut Pasteur's new scientific priorities, Benoît and his team are continuing to study the impact of food emulsifiers on the gut microbiota. A healthy gut microbiota is composed of 100,000 billion bacteria from around 200 to 300 different species. These bacteria communicate among themselves and play a key role in the development of the immune system and our overall physical and mental health. But the industrialization of the food industry has disrupted this balance.
Our recent research clearly shows that emulsifiers bring about lasting changes in the quality of the gut microbiota. They reduce microbial diversity and encourage bad bacteria. In an ambitious collaborative clinical trial, we recently demonstrated that in patients with Crohn's disease, eliminating the consumption of these additives increased the chances of achieving remission.
|
Additives in our plates – a brief introduction More than 300 food additives are currently authorized by regulatory bodies. Antioxidants, thickeners, emulsifiers, preservatives and sweeteners are found in the composition of industrial food products as E numbers: E140, E471, etc. They are used in a host of foods including yogurts, almond milk, low-fat cream, ice cream and sandwich bread. |
Global biodiversity and human health
Benoît sees the loss of bacterial biodiversity in the gut as comparable with the wider loss of biodiversity at planetary level among animal species. In North America and Europe, where our lifestyles are geared towards industrialized food, but also in India and the wider Asian continent over the past twenty years, scientists have observed that our gut microbiota is becoming less diverse. Scientists are currently developing microbiome biobanks in different countries worldwide to keep a record of this diversity – and Benoît's laboratory will be contributing to those efforts this year!
Innovative therapies for obesity, diabetes and Crohn's disease
Benoît believes that future treatment of these chronic, complex conditions will involve a personalized approach to medicine and that acting on the microbiota will unlock real therapeutic potential for some patients. Strategies will include analyzing the state of a given patient's microbiota to devise a personalized diet plan or adapt their eating habits, or even restoring a healthy microbiota with a fecal transplant. The latter technique is already used to eradicate the pathogenic bacteria Clostridioides difficile, which can be fatal. With further ERC funding from a recent Consolidator Grant, Benoît's team is also working on specific probiotic strains and dietary fibers that promote metabolic and gut health. The first results will be coming soon – watch this space!
______________________________________________________________________
Key dates in Benoit Chassaing's career
Education and qualifications
2019: Accreditation to supervise research, Université Paris Descartes, Paris, France
2011: PhD in Genetic and Molecular Physiology, Université d'Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France
2008: Master of Science in Genetics and Physiology, Université d'Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France
Current position(s)
Since 2024: Director of Research and Head of the Microbiome-Host Interactions group at the Institut Pasteur, Paris, France
Since 2021: Associate Professor, partnership contract with IHU INFINY University Hospital Institute on inflammatory bowel disease (CHRU Nancy, Université de Lorraine, Nancy, France)
Previous position(s)
2019-2024: Director of Research and Head of the Microbiota and Chronic Inflammatory Diseases unit at the Institut Cochin, Paris, France
2019-2021: Research Associate at Inserm, permanent position (CRCN, Paris, France)
2015-2019: Assistant Professor, Institute for Biomedical Sciences/Neuroscience Institute, Georgia State University, Atlanta, United States
2012-2015: Postdoctoral fellow specializing in processed foods, microbiota and IBD. Institute for Biomedical Sciences, Georgia State University, Atlanta, United States
