Dr. Gianfranco Grompone is a senior scientist and team manager delivering high impact
product solutions in a competitive global market by combining strong academic basic science
background to industrial experience. Dr Grompone’s research interests include: microbiome
and probiotics, nutrition and health, functional foods, prebiotics and symbiotics, microbiomedriven
products and innovation, personalized nutrition, translational medicine and
biotechnology. To date, he has developed solid networks and public-private partnerships
worldwide, with a special focus in Latin America. He has been involved in science & technology
prospective policies and innovation strategies in Latin American countries as a consultant. He
has recently developed a science popularization national radio broadcasting program in
Uruguay, with a strong focus on microbiome related topics. He is a member of the Harvard
Kennedy School Executive Education Alumni network. He is faculty at the Eureka Institute of
Translational Medicine, where he performs lectures for basic scientists and medical doctors
on how to translate scientific discoveries into therapies and products.
Dr. Grompone got his agronomic engineer diploma at ENSAR (Ecole Nationale Supérieure
Agronomique de Rennes, France) in 1999. After his PhD (1999-2002) at Pr. Dusko Ehrlich’s
lab (INRA Jouy en Josas, France) where he focused on the role of homologous recombination
in the replication of the chromosome of E. coli, he worked as a postdoc (2002-2005) at Pr.
Philippe Sansonetti’s lab (Institut Pasteur, Paris, France), focusing on the early step of Shigella
flexneri entry into intestinal epithelial cells. He then moved to Danone Research (Palaiseau,
France) where he worked within the R&D Department for 10 years (2005-2015), putting his
efforts on the selection, functional characterization, preclinical validation and clinical
development of new probiotic strains for the dairy division. From 2014 to 2016 he directed the
microbiome program at Bioaster, a new public-private Technology Research Institute cofounded
by Danone Research, Institut Mérieux, Sanofi Pasteur, CNRS, INSERM, CEA, Institut
Pasteur and Lyonbiopôle. He was the head of the bio-business and IP direction at National
Institute of Agronomic Research in Uruguay from 2016 to 2018. After a short period at Lesaffre
International R&D Corporate team in Lille, France, leading the work as a Discovery Lead
Nutrition and Health Science Director with high focus on microbiome driven new products and
bioactive molecules screening, he joined BioGaia AB in Stockholm, Sweden, as the Vice-
President of Discovery and Research. He and his team are devoted to support clinically
effective probiotic strains and products for BioGaia AB with a translational approach going from
preclinical characterizations to clinical evidence.