Nexidia : a small company involved in big projects

August 17, 2009  “As a university researcher and lecturer, I have always had a lot of contact with industry through my research on microorganisms that present an interest for various sectors such as the food industry, pharmacy and agro-environment. It was it in context that I met Patrice Arbault, an engineer with a significant experience in managing a company,” explains Jean Guzzo.

From this encounter the company Nexidia was created en 2007, an SME specialized in microbiology with Patrice Arbault as president and Jean Guzzo acting as scientific consultant. The company now has a total of 6 employees: in addition to the two founders, there are two PhDs – including the R&D manager, Nicolas Desroches, who has been with the company from the beginning and whom Jean Guzzo calls a “major component” of the company –, two technicians and a PhD student.

The research of the PhD thesis is being carried out within Jean Guzzo’s own research unit at the University of Burgundy, the laboratory of vine and wine research (REVV) directed by Hervé Alexandre. “For a number of years, we have been working on a few proteins of microbial origin with interesting properties that we are attempting to exploit for various sectors such as food and pharmacy,” Jean Guzzo explains. The first patent related to this research was applied for by Nexidia in 2008.

Nexidia is already involved in two large Vitagora accredited projects that have received national funding. The first, PROBIOTICS, is lead by the companies Senoble and Merck Médication Familiale and aims to optimize the technological application of probiotic microorganisms. The second project, NUTRICE, lead by the kitchen appliance manufacturer SEB, has the aim of developing new preparation processes for rice-based portions with improved taste and nutritional properties.

“These are two important projects for Nexidia. In the project NUTRICE, for which the R&D program will begin in 2010, we were very active during the development phase of this project thanks to our expertise in the area of microorganisms,” underlines Jean Guzzo, who also acknowledges that this type of collaborative project is of great value for a company of the size of Nexidia. This is doubtless one of the strengths of R&D network organizations like Vitagora, in that they allow a project to be built around very varied but entirely complementary capabilities. “We would never have imagined that Nexidia would take part in a project alongside SEB,” states Jean Guzzo. 

Contact
Jean Guzzo
Email : jean.guzzo@nexidia.fr
www.nexidia.fr

Source : Agence JFD and Co