Gisèle LaPointe

Professor Gisèle LaPointe
Professor, NSERC/Dairy Farmers of Ontario Industrial Research Chair in Dairy Microbiology
Email: 
glapoint@uoguelph.ca
Phone number: 
519 824 4120 extension 52099
Office: 
Food Science Department - CRIFS Building
Summary: 

The goal of our laboratory is to improve the quality and functionality of food, with a special focus on dairy products such as yogurt, milk powders and cheese. We investigate the microbial communities of these foods using molecular approaches spanning genes, proteins and metabolites. We seek to understand how food and probiotics can influence the composition and activity of the gut microbiota leading to potential health benefits. Along the way, we hope to improve sustainability by finding new ways to use processing byproducts as functional food ingredients. Our team’s research is divided into three broad themes:

Theme 1: Milk and dairy product quality and food safety
• Studies on milk quality at the farm and processing levels in Ontario.
• Investigating and tracking the spoilage-causing thermoduric bacteria and spores of milk powder and cheese in Ontario.
• Characterization of microbial communities of cheese through culture and culture-independent methods to improve production.
• Application of biochemical and microbial aspects of ripening/flavor development on cheese quality prediction and modification.
• Controlling Listeria and Salmonella in food.
• Use of in vitro gastrointestinal modeling to determine strain variation in Salmonella survival and activity through transcriptomics and metabolomics.

Theme 2: Probiotics, lactic acid bacteria activity & gut microbiota
• Investigating the mechanism of exopolysaccharide biosynthesis by lactic acid bacteria.
• Investigating the cross-feeding interactions between probiotics and butyrate-producing colon bacteria in the presence of dietary fiber.
• Analysis of the influence of food additives on the metabolomics profile of human gut microbiota.
• Effects of whey protein isolate based media on proteolytic and anti-virulence activity of Lactobacillus helveticus (LH-2) and Lactobacillus acidophilus (La-5) probiotic strains.
• Effects of Lactococcus lactis subsp. cremoris JFR1 on Salmonella virulence gene expression using in vitro cell culture models.

Theme 3: Ingredient functionality in dairy products
• Utilizing apple pomace to enhance the fruit and fibre content as well as the stability of dairy products.
• Effects of dried apple peel powder on the functional and sensory properties of drinking yogurt.
• Production of bioactive ingredients through fermentation of whey.
 

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beneficial microbes, dairy, fermentation, foodomics, microbes, microbial ecology, Microbiome, milk quality, polysaccharides, probiotics

Professor, NSERC/Dairy Farmers of Ontario Industrial Research Chair in Dairy Microbiology

Faculty Advisor for Food Science BSc Co-Op program

Gisèle has been awarded the Dairy Farmers of Ontario Professorship in Dairy Microbiology, joining the Department of Food Science in January 2015. She has teaching and research experience in biotechnology, food microbiology and food applications of microbial molecular genetics, genomics and proteomics, using systems approaches for studying microbial ecology. Gisèle is also the department’s faculty advisor for the Coop program.

Academic History

B.Sc. in Biology, University of Prince Edward Island (1979)

M.Sc. in Ecology, Université Laval (1983)

Ph.D. in Microbiology, Université Laval (1992)

Affiliations and Partnerships

  • Associate Editor of the International Journal of Food Microbiology
  • Editorial Board for Applied and Environmental Microbiology
  • Past President of the Quebec Association for Food Protection
  • Member of IAFP, ASM, CSM, CIFST and CSN

Awards and Honours

NSERC/Dairy Farmers of Ontario Industrial Research Chair in Dairy Microbiology

Research Impact

Gisèle’s research aims towards understanding how food components modulate the metabolic activities of microbiota in food and human microbial ecosystems. Her goal is to improve the quality and functionality of food, with a special focus on milk and dairy products.  

Canada’s capacity for innovation in the dairy industry will grow through knowledge translation and training highly qualified personnel. The NSERC/DFO Industrial Research Chair will contribute to the mission of the Dairy Farmers of Ontario: “To provide leadership and excellence in the production and marketing of Canadian milk”. Dairy microbiology can aid this process by concentrating on reinforcing milk quality management practices and providing scientific support for dairy as a delivery vehicle for health benefits to the Canadian consumer. The NSERC/DFO Industrial Research Chair will thus integrate knowledge across the value chain, from producer to consumer health, providing a systems approach to high quality dairy products. 

Current Research

Milk and dairy product quality: Farm management practices have impacts on the types of microbes that are transmitted to milk, which in turn influence processing and the shelf life of the products. Gisèle is developing projects on the stability of silage, which has been identified as a potential source of contaminating microbes in milk. She studies how microbial communities contribute to cheese production and ripening.

Dairy products are adaptable vehicles for delivering functional health components in the human diet, including probiotics, prebiotics and other bioactive compounds such as peptides. Gisèle’s research looks at how digestion affects survival and activity in these complex mixtures, and their impact on the gut microbial community.

Dairy processing leads to co-products that can be fermented in order to produce functional foods containing probiotics and bioactives. Gisèle’s research studies how these ingredients may be able to modulate the gut microbiota or the immune system to promote health and reduce the incidence and severity of chronic or infectious diseases. The results will lead to means for controlling microbial ecosystems in the dairy environment, improving the value of dairy products and stimulating new innovations in using food to influence gut health.

Graduate Student Information

Graduate students interested in working with Gisèle should submit a letter of motivation with their CV by email.

Gisèle sees her role as the coach, encouraging each student according to their particular needs in order to reach their full potential, whether in an undergraduate summer project, Master’s, Ph.D. or a postdoctoral internship.  Publishing their results is an integral part of this process. She fosters critical thinking and initiative within a cooperative work environment. Students take responsibility for their professional development, learning how to manage time and resources, and as they gain experience, they will supervise other students.

Some examples of previous projects are studying the impact of the phosphorylation state of proteins on their function during the biosynthesis of polysaccharides, increasing the bioaccessibility of antioxidants in milk through fermentation with probiotics, and discovering the interactions between starter and ripening bacteria in cheese.

Students supervised by Gisèle have obtained faculty positions, gone on to become director of R&D in industry, or joined provincial or federal government agencies such as MAPAQ, CFIA and Health Canada.

Featured Publications

Rahman, Md Saifur, S. Soltani, G. LaPointe, S. Karboune, I. Fliss 2025. Lactic Acid Bacteria: beyond fermentation to bio-protection against fungal spoilage and mycotoxins in food systems. Frontiers in Microbiology 16, 1580670.  doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1580670.

Gagnon, M., S. Jean, J. De Toro Martin, G. LaPointe, D. Roy. 2025. Biofilm Dairy Foods Special Issue : Insights into the prevalence of Pseudomonadota and yeasts on milking system surface biofilms. J. Dairy Sci. 108(8): 8141-8156. https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2024-26016

Pakroo, S., A. Tarrah, S. Soltani, G. LaPointe. 2025. The effect of dietary transition on infant microbiota composition and metabolic activity captured with the Simulator of the Human Intestinal Microbial Ecosystem (SHIME). Gut Microbiome, 6, e9, 1–15, doi: 10.1017/gmb.2025.10007.

Tarrah, A., D. Zhang, P. Darvishzadeh, G.LaPointe. 2024. The contribution of dairy bedding and silage to the dissemination of genes coding for antimicrobial resistance: a narrative review. Antibiotics, 13, 905. https://doi.org/10.3390/antibiotics13090905

LaPointe G, Wilson T, Tarrah A, Gagnon M, Roy D. 2025. Microbial community tracking from dairy farm to factory: insights on biofilm management for enhanced food safety and quality. J Dairy Sci. 108(8):8101-8119. https://doi.org/10.3168/jds.2024-25397.

Siddiqi M, Tarrah A, Chen Z-H, LaPointe G. 2024. Phenotypic differentiation of Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactobacillus delbrueckii subsp. bulgaricus Isolates found in yogurt starter cultures. Fermentation 10:601. DOI : 10.3390/fermentation10120601

Wilson T, Siddiqi M, Xi Y, LaPointe G. 2024. Tracking the microbial communities from the farm to the processing facility of a washed-rind cheese operation. Front Microbiol 15:1404795. 10.3389/fmicb.2024.1404795.

Mohamed, H.M., Barzideh, Z., Siddiqi, M., LaPointe, G. 2023. Taxonomy, sequence variance and functional profiling of the microbial community of long-ripened cheddar cheese using shotgun metagenomics. Microorganisms. 11, 2052. https://doi.org/10.3390/microorganisms11082052

Huffman, J., P. Drouin, L. Dunière, G. LaPointe. 2023. Fermentation and microbial community of maize silage inoculated with Lentilactobacillus buchneri NCIMB 40788 and contaminated with Bacillus and Clostridium spore formers. Fermentation, 9:837. https://doi.org/10.3390/ fermentation9090837

Huffman J, P. Drouin, J.B. Renaud, L. Dunière, G. LaPointe. 2023. Farm management practices and season dependent factors affect the microbial community and chemical profile of corn and grass-legume silages of farms in Ontario, Québec, and Northern New York. Front. Microbiol., 14:1214915. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2023.1214915.

Book Chapters

LaPointe, G. 2015. Understanding and preventing spoilage of cow’s milk. In : Achieving sustainable production of cow’s milk.  Nico van Belzen (ed.), Vol 1., Safety and Quality. Burleigh Dodds Science Publishing Limited.

Related Links

https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gisele_LaPointe

Professor Gisele LaPointe

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDFher75Yck