Our partner CNR will host the EU Food Safety Forum 2025 on 2–3 December at the CNR headquarters in Rome, bringing together policymakers, researchers, industry leaders and innovators to shape the future of food safety in Europe.. We are pleased to share that...
CNR-ISPA is leading the way in Purple4Life, turning purple bacteria into safe, sustainable ingredients for the foods of tomorrow. As coordinator of the EU Food Safety Platform, CNR-ISPA guarantees strict safety checks, helping new bio-based foods earn regulatory...
Université de Mons (UMONS), located in Mons, Belgium, coordinates the Purple4Life project focused on valorizing agri‑food by‑products through purple photosynthetic bacteria (PPB). Led by Baptiste Leroy at ProtMic, its “PurpleTeam” develops sustainable PPB bioprocesses for food, and feed.
The Université de Mons (UMONS), located in Mons, Belgium, plays a central role in the Purple4Life project as its coordinator. The university leads research focused on sustainable food and feed innovation through the use of purple photosynthetic bacteria (PPB), an emerging microbial platform for producing high-value biomolecules from agri-food by-products.
The UMONS team operates mainly within the Proteomics and Microbiology Laboratory (ProtMic) led by Professor Ruddy Wattiez, and which hosts between 25 and 30 researchers, from undergraduate students to postdoctoral fellows. The department combines expertise in microbial physiology, proteomics, and bioprocess development to understand and optimize microbial metabolism across various microorganisms.
Within ProtMic, a dedicated “PurpleTeam” led by Baptiste Leroy, conducts fundamental and applied research exclusively on PPB. This team includes four postdoctoral researchers and three PhD students involved in several national and international projects such as PROTEBoost, PurpleHealth, PurpleH2, WalBioPower, and Redoxome.
ProtMic researchers have long experience in microbial biotechnology, proteomics, and environmental microbiology. Their work has contributed to understanding PPB physiology, the production of bioactive molecules, and the valorization of industrial by-products through sustainable bioprocesses. UMONS has coordinated and participated in numerous European and regional projects, building a strong record in interdisciplinary collaboration and technology transfer towards bioeconomy applications.
In Purple4Life, UMONS acts as the coordinating institution and leads the consortium’s scientific and administrative management. The research focuses on optimizing PPB cultivation strategies to produce biomass rich in nutritional compounds, including Coenzyme Q10, carotenoids, and proteins. The UMONS team will develop safe and scalable bioprocesses to valorize agri-food side streams as feedstock while assessing the nutritional, environmental, and societal impacts of PPB-based food and feed innovations.
UMONS also leads Work Package 2, which addresses the large-scale production of PPB biomass and provides central support to Axis 1 of the project. This axis encompasses the development and optimization of bioprocesses using by-products from the food, energy, and carbon sequestration sectors as feedstock (WP1), as well as demonstrating the feasibility of producing food-grade PPB at industrial scale (WP2). The work in Axis 1 is designed to meet the requirements of Axes 2 and 3, ensuring that the produced biomass is suitable for human health applications and animal nutrition trials conducted by other consortium partners.
ProtMic is equipped with advanced infrastructures for microbial cultivation, molecular analysis, proteomics, and biochemistry. The laboratory is currently expanding its bioprocess capacity. A large-scale PPB production facility, consisting of modular systems with reusable plastic bags, is being finalized and tested. Medium-scale production (200 L cultures) has already been demonstrated and will soon be scaled to multiple units, reaching approximately 1000 L of total production capacity.
The department also houses state-of-the-art equipment for protein and metabolite analysis (LC-MS/MS), molecular biology, and physiological assessment of microbial systems. UMONS administrative staff, experienced in coordinating European research projects, provides full support for project management and communication activities.
Baptiste Leroy – Project coordinator. Associate professor at PROTMIC and responsible for PPB research at UMONS. He oversees the scientific strategy of Purple4Life and the integration of activities across work packages.
Salim Kichouh Aiadi – Principal Investigator. Postdoctoral researcher in charge of PPB production and process optimisation, bridging fundamental studies on PPB metabolism with the design and operation of scalable bioprocesses.
Erica Di Caro – Project manager. Responsible for the daily project management, including planning, follow up of deliverables and milestones, internal communication within the consortium, and organization of meetings and reporting.
Barbara Marchi – EU office manager. Member of the UMONS European Project Office, in charge of EU level project management aspects such as grant administration, legal and financial compliance, interaction with the funding body, and support for dissemination and exploitation activities.
Jean François Blondeau – Finance officer. Responsible for the financial monitoring of the project at UMONS.