The Microbiota, a major health topic yet to be fully explored and considered

The role played by the microbiota in human health has been of growing interest for the last decade. Ground-breaking research about this topic is booming. It has led to a better understanding of how over a trillion microorganisms, which live in our gut (bacteria, viruses, parasites, and fungi), interact with the digestive system and form a complex ecosystem that plays a fundamental role in human health and diseases.

However, there remains a lot to be explored.

Biocodex Microbiota Foundation for sciences advance and better care of human microbiota

As a world-renowned leader in microbiota research and a pioneer in probiotic treatments, Biocodex launched in 2017 a Foundation dedicated to enhancing scientific knowledge about the human microbiota, improving our understanding of microbiota, disseminating this knowledge as widely as possible and eventually, contributing to improving human health. 

Each year, the Biocodex Microbiota Foundation awards annual grants to innovative scientific research projects that explore the role of microbiota and, in particular, the impact of its imbalance on the occurrence or evolution of various pathologies. To do so, the Foundation gathers both international and national boards of independent experts who select the most innovative fundamental or applied research projects to be awarded grants.

In 2021, Biocodex Microbiota Foundation launched Henri Boulard Award

To foster its commitment to improving global health, the Biocodex Microbiota Foundation launches in 2021 the Henri Boulard Award.

Henri Boulard is the famous French microbiologist who discovered the yeast Saccharomyces boulardii in the 1920s in Indochina and its virtues against diarrhoea. The Henri Boulard Award honors this memory, and it is dedicated to improving the management of disorders associated with microbiota.

This award supports projects initiated at a local level through education, new infrastructure, awareness campaigns, farming projects, etc. From water purification projects to health education programs, the project has to address a local unmet medical need in the country and improve a population’s health by protecting microbiota.

In 2024, the Henri Boulard Award extends its scope, so as to encourage projects aimed at protecting humans from antimicrobial resistance phenomena and from the deleterious impact of certain environmental changes.

Microbiota People Planet

In 2025, the Foundation is going a step further, rewarding research proposals involving the microbiota and its implication in Women’s Health and Disease.

A better understanding of the role of the microbiota population in pathologies such as infertility, recurrent bacterial infections, endometriosis, pregnancy complications and many others could help the scientific community to address women's health issues and offer patients innovative microbiota-targeted solutions. This is why the Biocodex Microbiota Foundation is launching in 2025 the Microbiota and Women’s Health Grant. 

This international grant has a goal: reward innovative research projects, clinical or fundamental, involving the microbiota and its implication in Women’s Health and Diseases. Every year, a specific theme will be defined by an independent scientific committee. Researchers will be invited to submit their research projects in the dedicated field. No doubt, this new grant will contribute to the emerge of new studies with high scientific and medical impact
 

Our values

Independence

To enable the Foundation to effectively fulfill its role and responsibilities, Biocodex and Biocodex Microbiota Foundation are two separate and legally unrelated entities whose operations are completely independent.

Trust

Trust in the scientific community, which guarantees that Biocodex Microbiota Foundation’s ambition is built exclusively on the authority of knowledge.

International

The projects we support aim at moving health forward for everyone, everywhere.

Long-term vision

The Foundation has a long-term vision, investing in the abilities and potential of scientific people to improve human health.

The board

X Roux
Xavier Roux

Biocodex Microbiota Foundation Chairman, Head of Microbiology Department, Biocodex Laboratory Compiègne, France

Dr. Maxime Prost
Maxime Prost à la Denise

Biocodex Microbiota Foundation General Delegate, Laboratory Biocodex Gentilly, France

Lynne McFarland Epidemiologist
Lynne Mc Farland

Infectious Diseases Epidemiologist, Seattle, USA

D Fontana_The board
David Fontana

Head of Region Asia-Pacific, General Manager Biocodex Vietnam, Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Miriam Alves
Miriam Alves

Investigative reporter and science journalist SIC TV, Lisbon, Portugal

Harry Sokol
Harry Sokol

President of the committee, Professor of Gastroenterology, St Antoine Hospital, APHP, Sorbonne University, Paris, France

Committees

Henri Boulard award committee
patrick de boever
Patrick De Boever

Director of Research & Valorization, Antwerp University Hospital, Belgium

Vanessa Carter HBA
Vanessa Carter

AMR Patient Survivor and One Health Advocate

R Sebbag
Robert Sebbag

Doctor of Medicine, Department of the Infectious Diseases, Pitié Salpétrière Hospital

Women Health scientific committee
Pedro Vieira Baptista
Pedro Vieira Baptista

President of the committee, Obstetrician-Gynecologist​, Porto, Portugal

Henriette Svarre Nielsen
Henriette Svarre Nielsen

Chair Professor Obstetrics and Gynecology, Department of Medicine, University of Copenhagen​, Denmark

Ina Schuppe-Koistinen
Ina Schuppe Koistinen

Director of Centre for Translational Microbiome Research, Department of Microbiology, Tumor and Cell Biology, Karolinska Institute, Solna, Sweden

Jacques Ravel
Jacques Ravel

Professor of Microbiology and Immunology, University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, Maryland​, USA

Maria Kyrgiou
Maria Kyrgiou

Professor, Imperial College London and Consultant Surgeon in Gynecology and Gynecological Oncology, the West London Gynecological Cancer Centre, Imperial Healthcare NHS Trust​, London, UK

Pierre-Emmanuel Bouet
Pierre-Emmanuel Bouet

University Professor, Hospital Practitioner, Head of in Obstetrics and Gynecology Department, Angers University Hospital​, France

International scientific committee
Harry Sokol
Harry Sokol

President of the committee, Professor of Gastroenterology, St Antoine Hospital, APHP, Sorbonne University, Paris, France

Joel Doré
Joël Doré

Research Director at INRAE & Scientific Director of Metagenopolis, Jouy en Josas, France

Francisco Guarner
Francisco Guarner

Consultant of Gastroenterology, Teknon Medical Centre, Barcelona, Spain

Christoph Hogenauer
Christoph Högenauer

Gastroenterologist, Medical University of Graz, Austria

M Joosens
Marie Joossens

Professor of Microbiology, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium

Nicola Segata
Nicola Segata

Professor and Director of Computational Metagenomics, University of Trento, Italy

Magnus Simren
Magnus Simrén

Professor of Gastroenterology, University of Gothenburg, and Senior Consultant, Department of Internal Medicine, Sahlgrenska University Hospital, Gothenburg, Sweden

Elena Verdu
Elena Verdú

Professor of Gastroenterology, McMaster University - Hamilton, Canada

Gary wu D - Headshot
Gary D. Wu

Professor of Gastroenterology, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, USA

AboutBiocodex

Founded in France in 1953, Biocodex is an independent multinational pharmaceutical company that studied and demonstrated the beneficial effects of a probiotic yeast, Saccharomyces boulardii CNCM I-745® in the field of gastroenterology.

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