Biofoundry of Sorbonne University Alliance
The Biofonderie de l’Alliance Sorbonne Université (BFSU) joint service unit, set up in 2023, is tasked with establishing a range of technological services, partnerships and high-level training in bioengineering for universities, academic laboratories and companies in the sector, with the stated ambition of structuring the life science engineering sector from its fundamental level right through to its technological applications. The BFSU is France’s first academic biofoundry, a robotized platform for synthetic biology. This infrastructure of excellence provides access to the cutting-edge technologies needed to accelerate fundamental research, applied and translational research, industrial development and innovation. This multi-tutorial unit develops academic and industrial partnership activities, promotes the emergence of innovation projects and the prematurity and maturation of start-ups. It also carries out development and marketing activities, and coordinates a network of partners. The BFSU is developing innovative research projects in synthetic biology for the production of biosourced and/or biodegradable materials (polyhydroxyalkanoates, rubber) and the degradation of plastics derived from fossil hydrocarbons (based on the PETase enzyme).
Members
- Ariel Lindner
- Stéphane Lemaire
- Pierre Crozet
- Damien Douchi
- Hortense Vielfaure
Platforms and equipment
- DNA Foundry (high-throughput DNA construction)
- Cell foundry (high-throughput engineering and phenotyping of microorganisms: bacteria, yeast, microalgae)
- Mass spectrometry platform for molecular characterization of bioproducts