Senior Editor

Christophe Lacroix has served as the Full Professor of Food Biotechnology at ETH Zurich since August 2002. Born in 1958, he studied Food Technology and Engineering at currently AgroParisTech, where he received his food engineering degree in 1980. He then moved to Québec Canada where he completed a Ph.D. in Food Science and Technology at Université Laval in 1984. From 1984 to 2002, he was a Professor of Dairy Biotechnology in the Department of Food and Nutrition Sciences at the Université Laval. He was the Founder and lead (from 1995 to 2002) the largest Dairy Research Centre (STELA) in North America. In 1990, he was one of five founding members of the Bioencapsulation Research Group (BRG) in Montréal which counts at present more than 1000 groups (30 % industrial) representing over 80 countries. In 1997, he established the Canadian Network of Excellence on Lactic Acid Bacteria supported by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada and industry partners, a network that he was responsible for until the end of 2002. Prof. Lacroix received several honors and awards. In 2001, he won the first Canadian Millennium Chair awarded in Food Sciences and Nutrition to develop research on functional dairy cultures and probiotics. He was a Visiting Professor at INRAE (France), an Invited Scientist at the Nestlé Research Center Lausanne (Suisse), and participated in many evaluation committees for large research grants and institutions. His work has been supported by numerous grants from Europe, Canada, and the USA as well as by a large number of industries worldwide. Prof. Lacroix has made outstanding contributions in the field of microbial biotechnology, including innovative fermentation and downstream processing technologies for single strain, intestinal microbial consortium, and human and animal intestinal microbiota, as well as metabolite production. His research in the field of immobilized cell technologies, modes of cultivation of gut microbes and microbiomes, advanced intestinal fermentation models (PolyFermS platform), and the characterization and production of natural antimicrobials systems for food and intestinal bioprotection is highly recognized. His research addresses the fundamental and technological characterization of functional microbes and gut ecosystems, their modulation, and their roles for food and health, with multidisciplinary system-oriented aspects. It includes ecosystem study and microbial screening, characterization of functional microbes and mechanistic studies, microbial technologies and intestinal research, linking in vitro models to animals and human studies. He aims to bridge basic knowledge of natural sciences and engineering sciences to achieve the application of microorganisms, enzymes, and metabolites for the processing of high-quality, safe, and healthy food and functional ingredients in his teaching experience. He has published over 320 articles in scientific peer-reviewed journals, won 15 patents, and supervised over the years more than 60 doctoral students. He is the Founder and member of the Board of Directors and the Scientific Advisory Board of the ETH-Spinoff company, PharmaBiome AG, specializing in the isolation, functional characterization, and production of gut microbe-based products for human therapy.

Gut fermentation models, Anaerobic technologies, Fermentation, Downstream processing, Antimicrobials, Functional microbes, Nutrition