1. Michel Van Thournout
mrvthour@hotmail.com
Groene Poortdreef 32
8200 Bruges
Belgium
+32 494 595 462
Summary
Within the laboratories of Bayer CropScience I’ve been given the
opportunity to diversify and strengthen my knowledge and skills in
Molecular Biology, Genetics and Functional Biology. During all those years
I have also developed a strong interest in Bio-Informatics.
During my studies of Agricultural Engineer at the University of Ghent I built
a strong knowledge in agriculture and specialized myself in plant genetics.
As I lived my childhood abroad (Africa, North- and South-America) I
developed a strong sense of communication taking into account cultural
differences within multi-national environments. This experience also gave
me the chance to learn different languages such as English, French, Spanish
and Dutch.
Professional carreer
From 2014 to 2016: Senior Researcher – Research laboratories of
Bayer CropScience in Ghent - (Belgium) – Functional Biology team
As a member of the Functional Biology team my task is to help different
groups in the company to perform specific expert analyses such as:
- In depth literature search and mining: compiling summaries on certain
topics, help extracting key scientific information from literature for the
building of a ‘triplestore’ database …
- In depth bioinformatics analyses for genes of interest like: orthology
searches, manual gene annotations, in-silico gene expression, determining
promoter regions, in depth protein analysis, etc…
- Help group leaders with documentation, detailed information and
problem-solving ideas to build on their strategies and approaches that would
permit to bring their project to a good end

2. My expertise was used on the following projects
- CANOLA - research on oil composition in the seeds
- CANOLA - research on disease resistance:
- Crop efficiency (wheat, CANOLA): help with gene characterization
literature search and scientific ideation.
From 2009 to 2013: Researcher – Research laboratories of Bayer
CropScience in Ghent - (Belgium) – Genetics department
CANOLA genetics research : genetic analysis of ‘knock-out’ genes of
interest obtained by EMS-mutagenesis.
Expression analysis of a gene family in CANOLA: Simultaneous
expression-analysis study of several genes (8 genes, members of gene
family with very high similarity at the sequence level) by qRT-PCR on a big
plant population. The ’fluidigm’ platform was used successfully for this end.
Genetic research for soybean: Setting up and gathering of the tools
needed for genetic research in soybean as this crop was new to Bayer. For
this purpose a genetically highly diversified soybean population was
gathered based on scientific literature and in house knowledge. This
population was acquired from different sources (United States-USDA,
Brazil, France-INRA…). This population was then assessed for its
diversification usefulness by using knowledge from publicly available
genetic SNP markers on an Infinium platform.
From 1999 to 2009: Junior Researcher - Bayer BioScience N.V. - Ghent
- (Belgium) – Molecular biology department.
Plant growth enhancement: Goal was to test tobacco plants transformed
with a “polycomb” gene for their alleged enhanced growth..
For this purpose measurements (dry and wet weight, leaf length, leaf width,
height) were performed on statistically relevant plant populations. This was
done for in-vitro plants and plants growing in a greenhouse. Different stress
conditions (salt and salicylic acid) were also tested.
Gene silencing: Goal was to test the feasibility of studying EGFP-silencing
in stably EGFP-transformed tobacco protoplasts (EGFP was visibly
expressed). For this purpose a scoring method was developed to measure
the EGFP-silencing in a protoplast population. Different silencer-vectors

3. were tested depending on the target sequence (promoter, open reading frame
or terminator) and the physicochemical composition of the silencer (DNA or
RNA; single stranded or double stranded…). The method of silencer-
delivery was electroporation.
Stress tolerance in plants: Goal was to isolate and pinpoint relevant
genes that have influence on the response to stress.
My task in this project was to isolate the PARP genes from cotton and to
make silencing constructs for transformation. One of the PARP-genes was
successfully isolated and a hairpin silencing-vector was constructed with the
sequence obtained.
. The results were promising and lead to a patent application : US
2009/0013431 A1.
Fiber quality cotton: Goal was to understand the biology of the cotton
fiber-formation and to try to improve its properties (mainly quality
parameters such as fiber-length, fiber-strength etc…) via molecular
techniques: isolation of genes having an influence on the formation of the
primary and/or secondary cell wall of the fiber. Expression studies of the
different genes isolated was studied during the fiber formation to confirm its
importance.
Education
De 1992 à 1998: University of Ghent (Belgium) – Degree of Bio-engineer
(Agricultural engineer) option Biotechnology and genetics (equivalent to
master degree) degree was obtained with HONOURS
From 1989 to 1992: (High school) Onze-Lieve-Vrouwecollege in
Assebroek, Bruges, Belgium
From 1985 to 1989: (High school) Liceo Franco-Ecuatoriano “La
Condamine” in Quito, Ecuador
Scientific publications
Van Thournout M., Hostyn V., Crommar K., Chongo G., Bots M., Rae S.,
Broadhvest J. and Engelen S. (2016) Two R-genes at a single genetic locus confer
resistance to Clubroot in Oilseed Rape. Poster presentation at the 3rd
Annual Conference
of the COST Action Sustain (FA1208)

4. Denolf P.; Van Thournout M. (2015) Soybean rod1 gene sequences and uses thereof.
Patent application WO2014006159 A1
Denolf P.; Van Thournout M.; Bourot S. (2013) Brassica rod1 gene sequences and
uses thereof. Patent application WO2014006158 A1
Brill, E.; Van.Thournout M.; White, R.G.; Llewellyn, D; Campbell, P.M.; Engelen,
S.; Ruan, Y.L.; Ariol, T. and Furbank, R.T. (2011) A Novel Isoform of Sucrose
Synthase is Targeted to the Cell Wall During Secondary Cell Wall Synthesis in Cotton
Fiber. Plant Physiology 157:50-54
Arioli T.; Engelen S.; Jacobs J.; Van Thournout M.; Bourot S. (2009) Gossypium
hirsutum plants with increased fiber strength comprising a fiber strength allele spanning
the GLUC1.1A gene from Gossypium barbadense. Patent application US 9121074 B2/
WO2009143995 A1
Van Thournout, M.; Reynaerts, A. and Jacobs J. (2009) Stress tolerant cotton plants.
Patent application nr. US 2009/0013431 A1
Ruan, Y.L.; Furbank, R.; Brill, E; Van Thournout, M. and Arioli, A. (2008)
Identification of a novel type of sucrose synthase and use thereof in fiber modification.
WIPO Patent application WO/2008/012058
Van Thournout, M. (1998) Isolatie en moleculaire karakterisering van cDNA’s
corresponderend met bloempigment biosynthesegenen in Rhododendron sp. (‘Isolation
and molecular characterization of cDNA’s corresponding with pigment biosynthesis
genes in flowers of Rhododendron sp.’). Graduation thesis, Gent, Belgium, Faculty of
Agricultural and Applied Biological Sciences
Languege skills
French : mother tongue
English : fluent
Espagnol : fluent
Néerlandais : fluent
Hobby’s
Sports : biking, walking
Other : Reading (Novels et Comics), photography