Françoise Coucheney is Assistant Professor in Microbiology at the University of Lille since 2006, after completing her PhD in Food Microbiology at the University of Burgundy, France. Her research topic, in the UMRt BioEcoAgro 1158, evolved towards the research of antimicrobial molecules produced by yeasts or bacteria, such as bacteriocins. Through the study of microbial ecosystems of local products (cheeses), by culture-dependent approach and by metagenetics, Françoise Coucheney approached the biopreservation of food by looking for antagonistic strains. The objective is to isolate antimicrobial molecules, identify them, define their mode of action and consider a food application (food preservation) or medical (replacement or potentiation of conventional antibiotics). Her recent work focuses on the characterisation of bacteriocins with anti-Gram negative activity, and their structure-activity relationship.
She is a member of two international associated laboratories: LIAAN on natural antimicrobials with Laval University in Quebec (Canada) and SAMBA on food science and applied biology with the Federal University of Viçosa (Brazil).