How and to what extent the French food production system could ensure healthy and sustainable diets for its population while increasing its capability for self-sufficiency? From a political point of view, there is a growing demand from consumers/citizens for what is considered a better control of the food chain and its social/societal externality, for a more sustainable development with a re-appropriation of the territorial space at proximity. Political leaders now seem to follow and even support this trend, with political agendas. However, the goal of self-sufficiency is also criticized for various reasons, and, above all, the many dimensions of the food system, such as health, environmental impact, acceptability and self-sufficiency, are not necessarily aligned. We aim to analyze the tensions surrounding the implementation of a higher self-sufficiency in the agricultural production of foods ensuring healthier and more sustainable diets. We will identify the pressures for an increase or decrease in the different domestic agricultural productions, when aiming to produce more healthy and sustainable diets while reducing and redistributing the imports. We will provide an analysis of the conflicts over the different objectives (nutrition/health, environment and self-sufficiency) and we will explore the trade-offs on which an optimal food system could be based. We will also describe the prospective adaptability of the system to alleviate the tensions, for instance with changes in agricultural productions and transportation modes. We will analyze the regional and local contingencies and the extent to which agricultural socio-economic metabolism can adapt to support local transformation to better meet a new prospective food demand. This interdisciplinary research project combines both systemic approaches considering the population diets, the production capability and transport network at the level of the country and detailed case scenarios at the level of small agricultural regions. The approach largely resort on modelling, with optimization and simulation models to identify the demand for agricultural products needed for healthier and more sustainable diets, iteratively recalibrate the environmental footprint of the reshaped domestic production, and understand the key parameters that favor or oppose the matching of production system network to this prospective new demand. Therefore, the research project includes (i) analyzing the conflicts between nutrition/health, environment and self-sufficiency, and delivering compromised diets as scenarios of demand for agricultural products, (ii) understanding how agricultural production could be reshaped in the national network so as to lower energy and GHGe associated with transports, and (iii) understanding how locally production areas could be transformed with different land uses and livestock allocations so that the production would better align with changes required in the national demand. The project includes a strong dissemination program toward the scientific community, the general public and political stakeholders.

Developing new methods of early diagnosis, prognosis and therapeutic strategies relies heavily on biomarker discovery. Based on our first patented results, we intend to set up and exploit new isotopic mass spec (IRMS) techniques to access Position-Specific Isotopic Analysis (PSIA). That is, we will measure the abundance of the naturally occurring, isotope 15N in different N-atom positions within crucial intermediates of the urea cycle altered in cancer and on a set of samples of a breast cancer tissue bank to determine the metabolic origin of specific isotopic signatures by using isotopic flux-modelling. In doing so, the present project gathers a consortium of experts in isotopes of international reputation and a worldwide IRMS company that will help in manufacturing an adapted system for routine PSIA. The project will be leader in finding innovative cancer biomarkers based in PSIA and also has an impact on the wider community that uses PSIA methods for environment and authentication.

Microalgae are interesting renewable energy source with attractive industrial properties. To be aware of the production progress, several approaches can be applied to measure their production. Nevertheless, the current analyzes are limited to a monoparametric approach that often destroys the cells and makes impossible the online control of the process hence the advantage of using non-invasive methods such as spectroscopic methods. The ORAMA project aims to explore the ability of the Raman spectroscopy to control the algal production process by interviewing the physiology of algal cell directly in-situ. This sensor could providing a reliable response in real time of the algal cells composition in order to improve the harvest time and to alert the operator in the case of unexpected problems with regard to maintain an optimal performance of his process. Microalgae are interesting source of raw materials with very interesting industrial properties (fuel production, biomass, high value molecules, etc.). Often, the monitoring of the production of these molecules is performed by monoparametric methods relatively simple which allow the evaluation of certain physical parameters (pH, T, turbidity, gas).To improve the understanding of the bioprocess, the characterization of the produced molecules is performed by high-performance analytical methods. Nevertheless, the analysis requires the destruction of the cells followed by extraction with organic solvents. These off-line techniques make it difficult to control rapidly the process, hence the advantage of using non-invasive methods such as Raman spectroscopy which would potentially allow in-situ study of cellular physiology. The ORAMA project proposes taking into account the entire measurement and value chain, ranging from the design of the measurement system to its test under industrial conditions and its commercialization. The developed sensor would provide a reliable and real-time response to algae composition, helping to better manage the crop and alert the operator to unexpected complications in the process. Several on-line analysis strategies are envisaged in our project to find the best results in terms of performance and practicality. The challenge is to adapt the analytical system to be able to evaluate directly the content of the algal cell by optimizing the technical parameters necessary for the direct monitoring in the very complex medium. Technological and scientific challenges are connected to the development of a robust database, the impact of the culture medium on the algae cell's own footprint, the low sensitivity of the measurement system and the fluctuation of signal due to the mobility of the studied cells. These locks are minimized by the design of optimized optical reader and suited statistical models. Other scientific questions such as the formation of biofilm on measuring surfaces and their impact on the production will be dealt in order to understand this complex problem common in bioprocesses. Our project offers a strong consideration of industrial constraint by combining both a pre-industrial platform and a companie (end user) to test the developed method. The final phase consists of validating the developed technology on closed raceways of an algal production platform. The prototype will be deployed in the installations of the end-user to validate its suitability with the fixed objectives (TRL 7-8). In parallel of technological developments and scientific research phases, a market research will be carried out to identify the sectors of potential application of the developed technology and to promote this new technology in other fields of bioprocess applied in the food or medical sectors.

Sugar and sweeteners are commonly and increasingly consumed in the human population. The effects of prolonged consumption of sugar and sweeteners on brain development and functions are still poorly described, especially for non-nutritive sweeteners such as aspartame, saccharin or sucralose (E955). Our recent data indicate that chronic consumption of sugar or non-nutritive sweeteners leads to alterations in dopamine and dopamine receptors in the reward system and affects decision-making strategies. We thus hypothesize that chronic and early sugar as well as non-nutritive sweeteners consumption can influence dopaminergic control of decision making, in a process that is independent of their energetic value. The SweetBrainDev project is thus designed to understand the long-term consequences of early consumption (in utero and adolescence) of sugar and non-nutritive sweeteners in both humans and mice, and to assess the causal role of dopaminergic modulations on decision-making strategies in order to understand the cerebral mechanisms by which these effects are produced. To investigate how chronic consumption of sweeteners influence brain functions, our project unfolds into 3 objectives: 1/ Explore molecular and physiological changes of the reward system induced by sugar or non-nutritive sweeteners consumption 2/ Characterize the influence of sugar or non-nutritive sweeteners consumption on behavioral and cognitive functions in mice 3/ Establish the causal relationships between sugar or sugar or non-nutritive sweeteners consumption and cognitive/emotional profiles in humans. SweetBrainDev is expected to unravel the causes and consequences of food consumption on brain development and on behaviors including anxiety, addictive processes, social cognition or on the complex relationship between nutrients preference, intake and their physiopathological consequences.

The production of new protein sources is necessary to sustain the worldwide consumption. Among them, oilseed proteins are good candidates due to their good amino acid (AA) composition and the important agricultural surfaces allocated to these crops in Europa and in France, especially rapeseed and sunflower. We will study the potential of theses crops, as well as flaxseed which outlets are increasing, to provide protein of good quality for human nutrition. For this purpose, several barriers have to be knocked down. On a technological point of view, protein extraction processes are not optimized and the incorporation of oilseed proteins in consumable food is few addressed. On a nutritional point of view, there are almost no data in humans related to the quality of these proteins. Our project will address these questions in three steps connected to each other. (1) Extraction processes will be optimized to increase the extraction yield, to remove compounds that can limit their interest for food products and to lower the volumes of effluents to achieve the most sustainable process as possible. (2) Assays of food enrichment will be implemented to obtain acceptable food products that can be produced at industrial scale. (3) Protein quality in these food products will be measured in vivo in humans using a novel dual tracer method for determining AA bioavailability. This method has been proposed by a FAO committee expert but was not implemented yet and will be developed in this project. The principle is to mix in an experimental meal a standard 13C protein (such as algae) together with the intrinsically labelled oilseed proteins. The blood 15N/13C or 2H/13C ratio will be compared to the ratio of the same AA in the meal and amodification of this ratio will reflect a modification of the AA bioavailability. The project will be conducted on a multistep mode, including upstream technological work to optimize protein extraction and purification, to formulate acceptable food products and to label the plants. As a result, experimental meals incorporating the intrinsically labelled proteins will be used for bioavailability in vivo studies. This project will bring the first validation of this non-invasive method for AA bioavailability, as well as the first data on protein and AA bioavailability of oilseeds, rapeseed, sunflower and flaxseed. The consortium is complementary and brings all the expertise necessary for the project: oilseed agronomy (Terres Inovia), oilseed ingredient production (Avril), plant protein biochemistry (LRGP) and in vivo protein quality assessment (PNCA). The project will provide basic and applied integrated additional knowledge related to agriculture, food sciences, food processing and human nutrition that will support local oilseed crop and oilseed protein development and use. This project will bring new data on the sustainability of oilseed proteins and their interest in human nutrition. It will favor the emergence of new sectors for exploitation of oilseed proteins in human nutrition. ProDige will assess the economic interest of greater crop diversification, and thus the opportunities of the diversification of species for agro-industrial strategies and consumer demands. This represents an important issue since rapeseed and sunflower represent a production of 1,2 million tons of protein in France. The project will bring keys points to determine the feasibility of exploiting this already existing protein resource and of developing food products enriched in oilseed proteins in France and Europa.