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Context

As part of the agroecological transition, livestock farming conditions and systems are evolving towards greater sustainability. To support these changes (diversification of feed resource, rearing environment, farming practices…), it is necessary to understand the physiological consequences on livestock.

Missions

The "Biology of functions for farm transition" (Biofonte) team studies the physiology of digestion, growth and lactation in pigs and dairy ruminants (cattle and goats). Its missions are to identify:

• the mechanisms that govern the physiology of the mammary gland, the digestive tract, the muscle and the adipose tissue,
• the physiological responses to changes in the environment and breeding practices.

Research areas

• Characterise the organisation of biological functions (digestion, growth, lactation) at different scales in the living world (gene expression (transcripts), cells, tissues and organs).
• Understand the interrelationships between these different biological functions (digestion and growth, muscle and fat growth).
• Determine the regulatory factors within the organs and tissues (muscle, adipose tissue, digestive tract and mammary gland) so that they can be guided by breeding practices that respect the animal, the environment and humans.

Expertise and skills

Our expertise covers a wide range of disciplines: nutrition, animal physiology, metabolism and endocrinology, cellular and molecular biology, bioinformatics. Approaches range from experimentation with in vivo and in vitro models to in silico analyses.
Methodological skills, on animal and plant matrices (feed raw materials):

• Cell isolation from tissues and fluids (blood, milk, etc.).
• Cell cultures (primary cells and cell lines, 3D cultures, organoids) and flow cytometry.
• In vitro digestion and absorption models.
• Biochemistry and biophysics analysis of tissues and fluids.
• Gene and protein expression (transcriptomics, western blot, enzymology).
• Histology (immunohistochemistry and cytochemistry).
• Bioinformatics (biological networks, graph-based approaches).

Leader

Myriam Grundy
Tel. : (+33)2 23 48 50 83
Courriel : Myriam Grundy

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