Ten years ago, the University of Burgundy decided to establish a technical platform flow cytometry (MFC) . Installed at the Institut Federative of Recherche (IFR 100) "STIC Health", which is headed by Anabelle Sequeira-Le Grand, microbiologist and doctor training in immunology. 70% of the activity of this platform are devoted to the biomedical sector, against 30% in food and plant biology. Today, it is a new step to allow greater use of the CMF by SMEs, especially the food sector. Explanations of the blame for this platform. Interview by Jean-François Desessard. BE France - What is flow cytometry or CMF and how did it develop? Anabelle

Sequeira-Le Grand - It is defined as the study of cells or particles individually trained by a liquid stream. It is a technique for characterizing individual quantitative and qualitative analysis of the physical or optical signals emitted by these cells or particles during the transition to the light beam of a laser. Used from the late 50s, she has been developed in the medical sector, particularly in hematology, immunology, oncology but also in pharmacology. The rise of the CMF was consolidated with the development of monoclonal antibodies, fluorescent probes, but also thanks to technological advances in electronics, computers and the design of lasers. CMF is in constant evolution. Today, it is a routine technique in various fields. It is also regularly used in other disciplines such as oceanography and also to determine the microbiological content of a sample of oil which, remember, is one of the parameters taken into account when judging its quality and fixing the price of barrel. This shows the importance of the CMF. BE France - Why you install a platform at the University of Burgundy? Anabelle Sequeira-Le Grand - Initially, the technical platform flow cytometry which I run at the University of Burgundy, had to develop this technique particularly in the field of immunology. It was more particularly to support the various research teams and companies in the region to approach the technology. But I quickly realized that there was also a wide range of applications in the Agri-food sector. Thus, today 30% of the activity of the platform CMF is spent on food and plant biology. And this activity is growing. In a context where the response time to a microbiological analysis are considered as a quality criterion, the use of the CMF can indeed adapt its speed and efficiency. For example, where conventional methods of micro-cultures require several days or more, the CMF can save time, what is more for microorganisms that are viable but not cultivable and some spores. With this technique, we have managed to quantify the interaction between lipid micelles and some strains of yeast. This interaction produces flavorings that could be applied in the food industry, including yogurt. BE France - However, the CMF is still unknown in many areas. How do you explain that? Anabelle Sequeira-Le Grand - The huge potential and applications of various sectors of the CMF are indeed bad or little known industry, and particularly in microbiology. This can be explained by the cost of instruments, which is undeniably an obstacle to the development of the CMF, but also the need to hire qualified personnel and specialized in the field. However, the emergence of technical campus, as is the case with this platform, enables academic labs or companies who wish to get rid of these fears and to experiment with confidence the potential the CMF. So with my colleague, Arlette Hammann, an engineer INSERM, we try to discover and explain the CMF and the potential in it, including students who are moving into this sector. Recall that the communication on the potential and limitations of the CMF with microbiologists, is identified in the activity of the platform as a core objective. It belongs to the community cytometry play a unifying role of disciplines around the application of a technique that offers the possibility of such a vast area of development, which is quite rare for the stress.