Michael has been involved with the IWGSC since almost the beginning. In 2004, he began collaborating with then-INRA scientists Philippe Leroy and Catherine Feuillet, who were working on deciphering the sequence of the largest wheat chromosome – 3B. In 2007, Michael developed the 3B wheat physical map browser to facilitate the analysis of the first wheat physical map. He joined the IWGSC coordinating committee in 2010 and has overseen all IWGSC data releases since then, from the first physical maps to the 3B assembly and the various versions of the IWGSC RefSeq assemblies and annotations, now at version 2.1. In 2016, Michael was awarded an IWGSC Outstanding Leadership Award in recognition of his leadership and dedication in making IWGSC resources available to the wheat community.

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What do you find most challenging about your work in wheat genomics and bioinformatics?

The size and complexity of the wheat genome has been the biggest challenge from a data management and bioinformatics perspective. It has been a long journey, from the first wheat physical map to the current ten or so de novo genome assemblies!

What is a memorable milestone or achievement in your career that you are particularly proud of?

It's more a collection of milestones: being author on high-impact publications in Nature and Sciences (co-author) and in Genome Biology (author), presenting at PAG conferences, and managing work packages for large-scale projects.

Of all the IWGSC resources you worked with at URGI, which project or dataset has been the most complex or rewarding to work on?

What motivates me most is knowing that the resources developed (data repository, visualisation tools, analysis tools) are widely used in the community. For example, the URGI Blast querying IWGSC sequences has been used more than 15 million times! The related articles describing these resources (Alaux et al. Genome Biology 2018) has also been cited 270 times.

The IWGSC is committed to making the data it generates rapidly available to the research community. What are some of the key challenges in ensuring this open access?

The IWGSC has been a pioneer in providing rapid access to data, using the Toronto agreement to make data accessible from the QC phase, and then providing open access as soon as possible.
The key challenge was setting up access for IWGSC members during the pre-release phase, with the signing of the Toronto Agreements. Creating hundreds of accounts was a significant task, but it helped speed up the access to key data and played a critical role in accelerating wheat research.

The wheat community is experiencing a rapid acceleration of “omics” data and growth of digital platforms that serve an array of tools and use-cases. How can the community better meet challenges of access and usability of resources now and in the future?

The leadership of the IWGSC has been instrumental in streamlining and coordinating efforts to centralize data. We have now entered a new era where anyone can generate data.
The most important factor is that this data is of high quality, contains as much metadata as possible and is fed into a data repository. We are working to define standards and propose guidelines to help achieve this goal. 

AI is increasingly being used to analyze genomes and accelerate discoveries. How do you see AI impacting wheat genomics and bioinformatics in the coming years?

Kellye Eversole was a visionary, telling us about the potential of AI as early as 2018. It has already made an impact, from genome annotation to breeding assistance.
Within the wheat community, in addition to my activities in the IWGSC, I am also involved in the WheatIS (Wheat Information System) expert working group of the Wheat Initiative where I have been a member since 2013 and Chair since 2023. I have organised exchanges on best practices and feedback on the use of AI in wheat databases worldwide, such as GrainGenes, Ensembl Plants, KnetMiner, and others. 
At URGI, we are currently exploring the use of Large Language Models (LLM) to enable our databases to be queried in natural language using a chatbot.

What do you think will be the most significant advances in wheat research in the next 5-10 year?

A significant advancement will be the development of wheat varieties resilient to climate change. This will involve leveraging existing resources and technologies such as biodiversity, CRISPR, hybrids, and emerging tools like AI support. 
For example, I am involved in the European Pro-Wild project which aims to protect and promote wild relatives of plants, using their valuable traits to improve nutritional quality and resilience to biotic and abiotic stresses. Additionally, I am also participating to the IWGSC Wheat Diversity project which aims to preserve, discover, and mobilize genetic resources by sequencing landrace wheat varieties representing the worldwide diversity of bread wheat.
The next challenge will be to ensure that data are FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, Reusable), especially since data are often scattered across multiple databases and repositories, including the IWGSC Data Repository. We are addressing this challenge with the WheatIS Data Discovery tool – a “Google for wheat” – which enables users to search data across all international wheat databases. We are continually updating and adding new data sources, and improving the tool with the latest technologies.

If you could solve one major challenge in wheat research today, what would it be?

I leave the last word to ChatGPT, even though the answer is a bit straightforward.

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About Michael Alaux

Michael Alaux studied genetics before transitioning to bioinformatics. In 2003, he earned an M.Sc. in Bioinformatics from the University of Rouen Normandy (France), as part of one of the first classes of students in the field of bioinformatics in France.
He began his career at the URGI unit of INRA (now INRAE), specializing in grape genomics, where he contributed to sequencing the first grapevine genome. Then, with the growing importance of wheat research at INRA, he embarked on the exciting adventure of wheat genomics.

Current Position

France 

• Deputy Director of URGI (Unit Resources Genomics-Info) and Scientific Coordinator of the platform services
  French National Research Institute for Agriculture, Food, and Environment (INRAE)
• Executive Committee member
  Saclay Plant Sciences network 
  BioinfOmics RI
• Scientific Advisory Board Member
  Plant Genomic Resources Center (CNRGV, INRAE)

International

• Chair of the WheatIS expert working group of the Wheat Initiative
• Member of the IWGSC Coordinating Committee

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Additional Links

• URGI 
• IWGSC Data Repository
• Michael Alaux's page
• LinkedIn
• Bluesky