François Leulier, CNRS Research Director 
Director of the Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon (IGFL) at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon

François Leulier is a geneticist by training. He obtained in 2003 his Ph'D under the supervision of Pr. Bruno Lemaitre at the CNRS "Centre de Génétique Moléculaire" in Gif-sur-Yvette where he studied the genetic basis of host resistance mechanisms to bacterial infections using Drosophila as a model host. After post-doctoral training in the lab of Pr. Pascal Meier at the Institute of Cancer Research in London he is hired in 2007 at the CNRS as a staff scientist in the lab of Pr. Bruno Lemaitre and two years later joins the lab of Pr Julien Royet in the IBDML in Marseille. In those laboratories, he followed his studies on the mechanisms underlying host resistance to bacterial infections. In 2011, he showed that intestinal Lactobacilli promote systemic growth in juvenile Drosophila and he was appointed by the FINOVI foundation in summer 2012 to set up a research group at the "Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon (IGFL)" at the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon to develop his research on deciphering the mechanisms underlying the beneficial properties of intestinal Lactobacilli on their host biology using Drosophila and Mice as host models. In 2013, he received an ERC consolidator grant to fund his research. Since then the Leulier lab at IGFL is developing research programs in bacteriology, animal physiology and nutrition to decipher the functional interplays between the intestinal microbiota, intestinal bacterial strains and chronic undernutrition and their influence on animal juvenile growth dynamics. In 2017, he received the Sanofi-Institut Pasteur Junior Award and was elected EMBO member in 2020. Since Jan 2021 he is the Director of the Institut de Génomique Fonctionnelle de Lyon a joint research unit of the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, CNRS and Université Claude Bernard Lyon-I.

Dr Meiling Zhang:
Her research interests include Intestinal microbiota and host nutrition; Intestinal microbiota and host health; Development and application of probiotics or prebiotic; Environmental factors and intestinal health. 
During her research period, professor Zhang has received multiple grants including grants from National Natural Science Foundation of China, National Key Research & Development program, grants from Natural Science Foundation of Shanghai, etc. 
Professor Zhang’s laboratory has long been engaged in the interaction of host and intestinal microbiota. The team has developed many technical platforms, including zebrafish liver cell culture, nutrients tracing (Isotope, GC, HPLC, MRI), gene Edit (zebrafish), molecular biological analysis (Western blot, gene knockdown, high-throughput sequencing, et al), functional bacteria isolation and purification, germ-free zebrafish construction.

School of Life Sciences
East China Normal University
E-mail: mlzhang [at] bio.ecnu.edu.cn
H- factor 24 
1998-2002  BS, East China Normal University, Biochemistry
2002-2007 MS & PhD, Shanghai JiaoTong University, Microbiology
2007-2011 Lecturer, East China Normal University
2011-2012 Visiting Scholar, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
2012-2016 Associate Professor, East China Normal University
2017-now, Professor, East China Normal University

Selected recent publications (Among >100)
Zhang ML, Chekan JR, Dodd D, Hong PY, Radlinski L, Revindran V, Nair SK, Mackie RI, Cann I, Xylan utilization in human gut commensal bacteria is orchestrated by unique modular organization of polysaccharide-degrading enzymes. 2014. Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences of the United States of America.
Zhang ML, Li M, Sheng Y, Tan F, Chen L, Cann I, Du ZY, Citrobacter spp. increase energy harvest by modulating intestinal microbiota in fish: nondominant species play important functions. 2020, mSystems. 5:e00303-20. DOI:10.1128/mSystems.00303-20.
Xu R, Li M, Wang T, Zhao Y, Shan C, Qiao F, Chen L, Zhang W, Du Z, Zhang ML*. (2021). Bacillus amyloliquefaciens ameliorates high-carbohydrate diet-induced metabolic phenotypes by restoration of intestinal acetate-producing bacteria in Nile Tilapia. British Journal of Nutrition, 1-44. doi:10.1017/S0007114521001318
Wu HX, Li WJ, Shan CJ, Zhang ZY, LV HB, Qiao F, Du ZY, Zhang ML*(2021) Oligosaccharides improve the flesh quality and nutrition value of Nile tilapia fed with high carbohydrate diet. Food Chemistry: molecular sciences.
Qiao, F, Tan F, Li LY, LV HB, Chen LQ, Du ZY*, Zhang ML*(2021) Alteration and the function of Intestinal microbiota in high-fat-diet or genetics -induced lipid accumulation. Frontiers in Microbiology.
Limbu SM, Chen LQ, Zhang ML*, Du ZY* (2021) A global analysis on the systemic effects of antibiotics in cultured fish and their potential human health risk: a review. reviews in Aquaculture
Wang T, Zhang N, Yu XB, Qiao F, Chen L, Du ZY,  Zhang ML* (2020) Inulin alleviates adverse metabolic syndrome and regulates intestinal microbiota composition in Nile Tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) fed with high-carbohydrate diet, British  Journal Nutrition.
Zhang ML*, Shan C,Tan F, Limbu SM, Chen L, Du ZY (2020) Gnotobiotic models: Powerful tools for deeply understanding intestinal microbiota-host interactions in aquaculture, Aquaculture.

Patents:
ZL201510893962.9-The method to culture fish gut epithelial- Inventors: Meiling Zhang, Yukun Liu, Jingdong Xue, Licensed to CNIPA.

202010109464.1- Applicatoin of Bacillus amyloliquefaciens in aquaculture nutrition- Inventors: Meiling Zhang, Rong Xu, Application to CNIPA.