Frédérique Bidard-Michelot, a doctor in biochemistry, molecular and cellular biology from the University of Montpellier II, has dedicated her career to the study of ascomycete microorganisms (yeasts and fungi) using genetic, molecular biology, and systems biology approaches. She began her career in the field of oenology at UMR 1083 Sciences for Oenology. Her initial research focused on the genetic engineering of yeasts used in winemaking, a specialty she further developed at Lallemand SA, a global player in biotechnologies related to fermentation.
Frédérique continued her international journey, first in China, where she held a position in the scientific service of the French Embassy in Beijing and taught yeast genetics at Peking University (Beijing Daxue). Then, at the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, she worked under the direction of Professor O. Nielsen on fundamental issues of cell biology, particularly the study of cell fusion mechanisms in Schizosaccharomyces pombe yeast.
Upon her return to France, she turned to the field of systems biology through the study of the pathogenic yeast Candida albicans and the filamentous fungi Podospora anserina and Trichoderma reesei. These works were conducted in various laboratories (UMR Microbiology and Molecular Genetics, INRAE Center of Versailles-Grignon & Institute of Genetics and Microbiology, UMR8621, CNRS University Paris 11 & Institute of Biology of the École Normale Supérieure). For the past ten years, Frédérique has been working in the Biotechnology department of IFPEN. Her expertise focuses on the genetic engineering of Trichoderma reesei to enhance the production of cellulases, essential enzymes in industrial processes, utilizing her mastery of genomic, transcriptomic, and epigenomic data