International Grant

Marie-Emmanuelle Le Guern, Medical Doctor, has worked in the pharmaceutical industry all her career.  First she was head of medical information for Biocodex’s French division in 1989, and then moved into clinical research in 1995. In 2005, she became head of the Clinical Trials Department in Biocodex’s Research Center and was then named Research & Development Director in 2007. 

She graduated in biology and sports medicine, pharmacokinetics and methodology of clinical evaluations, and has a diploma in international management from ESSEC Business School. She now coordinates all the departments’ activities at the Biocodex Research Center. The Research Center’s 2 core subject areas are the digestive field, in particular probiotics and the central nervous system, with antalgics, anxiolytics, antidepressants and antiepileptic drugs.

Maxime Prost, Medical Doctor, has worked in the pharmaceutical industry all his career. He first began working at the training department for Bausch & Lomb before joining Biocodex in 2006 as medical advisor. 

After being head of medical information for Biocodex’s french division, he is today medical affairs director. He graduated in statistics for medical applications and has a diploma in intelligence marketing from HEC business school. He now coordinates the medical department for the French division of Biocodex.

Lynne V. McFarland is a world expert on C. difficile disease and the clinical uses of probiotics with over 35 years research experience in these fields. She received her Master’s Degree in Microbiology from Portland State University, Portland Oregon in 1980 and her PhD in Epidemiology from the University of Washington, Seattle Washington in 1988. Her doctoral thesis was on the Epidemiology and transmission of C. difficile in hospitals. 

Since then she has published over 181 peer-reviewed scientific articles, authored two books on probiotics, written 15 book chapters, served on 14 editorial or advisory boards, served as  a reviewer for over 116 journals and is an international speaker on probiotics and C. difficile infections and has presented lectures in over 99 international and national scientific meetings. 

She was an affiliate associate professor at the U. of Washington and was a health science research specialist for 14 years at the Veteran Affairs Medical Center in Seattle, Washington. She currently serves with the Public Health Reserves Corps, Seattle, Washington and does private consulting relating to analysis of studies on probiotics, the intestinal microbiome, and healthcare-associated infections.

David Fontana is graduated from the INSEEC Business School of Bordeaux and brings a rich international career with the pharmaceutical groups Bristol Myers Squibb and Ferring Pharmaceuticals where he was entrusted with Managing Director roles in Tunisia, French-speaking Africa, Romania, Portugal and Italy.

David joined Biocodex in 2022 as Senior Regional Manager for the Ibero America region (IBAM) and got then appointed in September 2023 as Asia-Pacific Regional Director. In April 2024 David moved to Ho Chi Minh City to establish and manage the first affiliate of the Group in Asia in addition to his current responsibilities.

The holder of a Doctorate in Cellular and Molecular Biology, Xavier Roux had a career in academic research before moving into the pharmaceutical industry in 2011 to work in the field of microbiology.

After joining Biocodex in 2015 as Research scientist at the R&D center, he took over the Microbiology Department in 2017.
The primary laboratory activity is the study of probiotic mechanisms of actions on microbiota.

Miriam Alves studied Communication Sciences in Lisbon and is a journalist working for the private Portuguese channel SIC TV, where she currently coordinates the In-Depth Reporting and Investigative Journalism team. 

She is also the author of several science journalism series, and is increasingly interested in the journalistic and democratic challenge of making the knowledge generated in the various areas of science accessible to everyone.

She has been distinguished with more than 30 national and international journalism awards.

Harry Sokol, is Professor in the Gastroenterology department of the Saint Antoine Hospital (APHP, Paris, France), the co-director of the Microbiota, Gut & Inflammation team (INSERM CRSA UMRS 938, Sorbonne Université, Paris), group leader in Micalis institute (INRAE) and coordinator of the “Paris Center for Microbiome Medicine” (www.fhu-pacemm.fr/). 

Harry Sokol is an internationally recognized expert in Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) and in gut microbiota fields. He published over 300 papers on these topics in major journals (including Gut, Gastroenterology, Cell Metabolism, Cell Host & Microbe, Nature communication, Nature Medicine). His work on the role of the gut microbiota in IBD pathogenesis led to landmark papers describing the IBD-associated dysbiosis (imbalance in gut microbiota composition) and the role of the pivotal commensal bacteria Faecalibacterium prausnitzii in gut homeostasis and in IBD. Currently, his work focuses on deciphering the gut microbiota-host interactions in health and diseases (particularly IBD), in order to better understand their role in pathogenesis and develop innovative treatments. Harry Sokol is exploring particularly the role of the microbiota in tryptophan and energy metabolism for which he is recipient of two ERC grants. Beside basic science, he is also involved in translational research. 

He is the current president of the French group of Fecal Microbiota Transplantation (www.gftf.fr) and the head of the APHP Fecal Microbiota Transplantation Center, he coordinated a pilot randomized control trial evaluating Fecal Microbiota Transplantation in Crohn’s disease and he is currently coordinating 2 phase III nationwide randomized control trial evaluating this approach in ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s disease. Harry Sokol is currently Associate Editor for Gastroenterology. Harry Sokol co-founded Exeliom biosciences (https://www.exeliombio.com/).

Twitter/X: @h_sokol