Montpellier Scientific Community



Agropolymer Engineering and Emerging Technologies (IATE)

Director: Hugo de Vries
Research area
The research unit Agropolymer Engineering and Emerging Technologies (IATE) is focusing on the physical and physico-chemical aspects of the processing of agro-molecules, agro-polymers and complex matrices and on the effects on structure, functional properties and qualities for use. A multidisciplinary approach is used that combines the study of sustainable processes and the quality of foodstuffs using biological (microbial and enzymatic activities), biochemical (the pattern of intra and inter-molecular interactions), and physicochemical approaches (mechanics, rheology, thermal analysis, surface state). With latest analytical tools, the microstructural changes are monitored (vibrational spectrometry, optical and electronic microscopy, etc.). A wide range of technologies is explored, such as cereal and starch technology, dairy product technology, lipids technology, active packaging and novel, mild, methods for conservation of food products.
Research highlights
  • Agro-resources fractionation and dry refinery
  • Extraction and functionalization of agro-polymers
  • Protein based bio-plastics and active packaging designs
  • Enzyme-catalysed functionalization of lipids and derivatives
  • Knowledge representation and reasoning applied to biomass processing
Staff profile
Research Org.ResearchersProfessors

Research Eng.

Techn.&Admin. Staff PhD
UM2, Mtp SupAgro, INRA, Cirad
17
27

9
22
25
Research teams
  • Fractionation of grains: structural, mechanic and physico-chemical approaches
  • Structuration of agro-polymer under stress and Reactivity of powders
  • Mass transport and reaction in food /packaging systems
  • Microbiological and enzymatic biotechnology of lipids and agropolymers
  • Integrated Application of Knowledge, Engineering Approaches
Platforms and other tools
  • Platform for plant processing (fractionation, structuration)
  • Platform on non thermal treatments (EFP, HP...)
  • Platform on powder engineering (generation, characterization)
  • Platform on packaging properties (mechanical, controlled release, barrier to solutes, gas and vapours, antimicrobial, Modified Atmosphere Packaging)
  • Platform on volatile compound analysis (shared with RU SPO)
  • Platform on industrial microbiology ( fermentations, protein engineering, purification) (Shared with RU SPO)
  • Scientific platform on lipids and hydrophobic polymers characterization (funded by Agropolis Fondation, 14 international partners)
Software developed within the unit
Transferomatic - Virtual grain - KB chain - EcoBioCap DSS
Most important international partnerships
  • European Ntework of Excellence High Tech Europe
  • Wageningen UR (NL)
  • VTT (Finland)
  • University of Bologna (Itlay)
  • USP - University of Sao Paolo (Brasil)
  • Kasetsart University - Prince of Songkla University and Hevea Research Platform in Partnership (Thailand, http://hrpp.ku.ac.th/)
Facts and figures
Publications in international ranking journals
2010: env. 50
2005 - 2009: 152
Representative publications
1. Liengprayoon S., Sriroth K., Dubreucq E., Vaysse L. (2011). Glycolipid composition of Hevea brasiliensis latex. Phytochemistry, in press, 10.1016/j.phytochem.2011.04.023 (IF 3,1)
2. Laguerre M., Decker E.A., Lecomte J., Villeneuve P. (2010). Methods for evaluating the potency and efficacy of antioxidants. Current Opinion in Clinical Nutrition and Metabolic Care, 13: 518-525. Facteur d'impact : 4,291
3. Sawsan A., Barouh N., Lecomte J., Lafont D., Robert S., Villeneuve P., De Caro P., Carriere F. 2010. Lipolysis of natural long chain and synthetic medium chain galactolipids by pancreatic lipase-related protein 2. Biochimica et Biophysica Acta, 1801: 508-516. Facteur d'impact :4,357
4. Buche P., Couvert O., Dibie-Barthélemy J., Hignette G., Mettler E., and Soler L., Flexible querying of web data to simulate bacterial growth in food, Food Microbiology, vol. 28, issue 4, pp. 685-693, June 2011. (IF : 3,21).
5. Destercke S., Buche P., Guillard V. (2011) A flexible bipolar querying approach with imprecise data and guaranteed results. Fuzzy sets and Systems, 169, (1), p 51-64. 2011,. (IF : 2,55).
6. Bourlieu C., Guillard V., Valles-Pamies B., Gontard N. 2009. Edible moisture barriers: Uses promises and limits in food products shelf-life extension. Critical Review in Food Science and Nutrition, 49 (5): 474-499. (IF : 4,1)
7. Auvergne R., Morel M.H., Menut P., Giani O., Guilbert S., Robin J.J. 2008. Reactivity of Wheat Gluten Protein during Mechanical Mixing: Radical and Nucleophilic Reactions for the Addition of Molecules on Sulfur. Biomacromolecules, 9 (2): 664-671. (IF : 4,14)
8. GREFEUILLE V., ABECASSIS J., ROUSSET M., OURY F.-X., FAYE A., BAR L'HELGOUAC'H C., LULLIEN-PELLERIN V. 2006. Grain characterization and milling behaviour of near-isogenic lines differing by hardness. Theoretical and Applied Genetics, 114 (1): 1-12
9. HEMERY Y., LULLIEN-PELLERIN V., ROUAU X., ABECASSIS J., SAMSON M.F., AMAN P., VON REDING W., SPOERNDLI C., BARRON C. 2009. Biochemical markers: Efficient tools for the assessment of wheat grain tissue proportions in milling fractions. Journal of Cereal Science, 49 (1): 55-64.
10. Danielli D., Gontard N., Syropoulos D., Zonderwan Van Den Beuken E., Toback P. 2008. Active and Intelligent Food packaging: legal aspects and safety concerns. Trends in Food Science & Technology, 19: 99-108. (IF: 3,8
11. Kim C., Morel M.-H., Sainte- Beuve J., Guilbert S., Collet A., Bonfils F. 2008. Characterization of natural rubber using size-exclusion chromatography with online multi-angle light scattering. Study of the phenomenon behind the abnormal elution profile. Journal of Chromatography A, 1213 (2): 181-188. (IF : 3,90)
12. Caravajal-Millan E., Landillon V., Morel M.H., Rouau X., Doublier J.L., Micard V. 2005. Arabinoxylan gels : Impact of the feruloylation degree on their structure and properties. Biomacromolecules , 6 (1): 309-317. (IF: 3,61)
13. Dumay, E.; Chevalier-Luca, D.; Lopez-Pedemonte, T.2010. High pressure and food conservation. In: Comparative High Pressure Biology (book)
14. Laguerre M., Lecomte J., Villeneuve P. 2007. Evaluation of the ability of antioxidants to counteract lipid oxidation: existing methods, new trends and challenges. Progress in Lipid Research, 46(5): 244-282. (IF: 11,19 )
15. Turgeon SL, Beaulieu M, Schmitt C and C. Sanchez (2007). Protein-polysaccharide complexes and coacervates. Current Opinion in Colloid and Interface Science, 12, 166-178. (IF : 4,35).
16. Schmitt C, Bovay C, Vuilliomenet A.M, Rouvet M, Barbar R and C. Sanchez (2009). Multi-scale characterization of individualized -lactoglobulin microgels formed upon heat treatment in narrow pH conditions. Langmuir, 25, 7899-7909. (IF :3,89).
17. Aberkane L, Jasniewski J, Gaiani C, Scher J and C. Sanchez. (2010). Thermodynamic characterization of Acacia gum - β-lactoglobulin complex coacervation. Langmuir, 26, 12523-12533. (IF :3,89).
18. Cuq B, Gontard N, Guilbert S. (1998) Proteins as Agricultural Polymers for Packaging Production. Cereal Chemistry, 75 :1-9. Citations : 149.
19. TOPIN V., RADJAI F., DELENNE J.Y., MABILLE F. 2009. Mechanical modeling of wheat harness and fragmentation. Powder Technology, 190: 215-220.
20. MARTELLI M.R., BRYGO F., SADOUDI A., DELAPORTE P., BARRON C. 2010. Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy and chemometrics: a novel potential method to analyze wheat grains. J. Agric. Food Chem. , 58 (12): 7126-7134.
21. Dubois J.-L., Bourlieu-Lacanal C., Lecomte J., Dubreucq E., Villeneuve P. (2010) Procédé de production d'ester d'acide ricinoléique par transestérification enzymatique. International patent PCT FR2010050314/WO2010100366
22. Dubreucq E., Weiss A., Gutsche B., Fabry B., Moulin G. (2010) Process for the production of fatty acid alkyl esters. International patent PCT EP0704377/US20100234458