DCR - Élise Leclair

Fellow Presentation :

My name is Elise, and I am a PhD student from France. I am currently pursuing my doctorate (DCR) at the University of Reading (UK) in collaboration with NIZO (Netherlands) and Athens University (Greece).

As I have always been profoundly attracted to life sciences, I completed my bachelor's in this subject at Poitiers University to broaden my knowledge. During my 3rd year, I started specialising in microbiology with my first internship in health and microbiota and a 6-month Erasmus at Radboud University in the Netherlands. I did my microbiology master's at Paris-Saclay University and a 4-month internship at I2BC working on an sRNA involved in Staphylococcus aureus virulence under iron-deficient conditions. My results are part of a paper published in 2024. During the second year of my master's, I focused on applied microbiology such as food microbiology. In parallel, I did an apprenticeship at INRAE working on genes involved in the persistence of Listeria monocytogenes inside human cells. I then discovered and applied to the FAIROmics projects involving microbiology work and was selected to work as DCR.

Currently, my research focuses on characterising Lactiplantibacillus plantarum isolates from olive fermentation. Using classical microbiology techniques, I evaluate their potential as starter cultures in food fermentation, assess probiotic properties, and investigate genes such as those in the GAD system through functional genomics.

I had many courses during my Master 2 on food fermentation, lactic acid bacteria (LAB) and their applications and gained knowledge of those subjects and a strong interest in them. As such, the subject of DCR seemed exciting to work on, and I was also attracted to the idea of a European thesis and secondments as this allows me to travel and meet many passionate people.