Focused on the Future

On a brisk day almost 28 years ago, a graduate student from Paris, France, strode out of the terminal at Raleigh-Durham International Airport. He took in the blue sky and smelled a whiff of pine in the air.  

Rodolphe Barrangou, now a world-renowned scientist, serial entrepreneur and 2025 CALS Distinguished Alumni Award recipient, uses a decidedly un-scientific word for what he felt that day: a vibe. 

“It was a moment where time stops for a second, and it just feels right,” Barrangou says. “You have a sense of being home when you’ve never been there. You can’t explain it, but it’s that sense of belonging.”

Instead of jet lag, he felt energized and ready for the next challenge. And after applying to 27 graduate programs on multiple continents, Barrangou enrolled at NC State University. His academic advisor, a chemical engineering professor, approved Barrangou’s plans to take food science classes, which looked intriguing. 

Professor Todd Klaenhammer’s graduate seminar in food microbiology turned out to be a fateful choice.

“What you really can’t make up is that the first class I ever took at NC State was with a professor that ended up being my life coach and academic mentor,“ says Barrangou, who now holds an endowed professorship at NC State named in Klaenhammer’s honor: the Todd R. Klaenhammer Distinguished Professor in Probiotics Research.

That’s not the only life-changing relationship to come out of the class. 

Klaenhammer took an informal poll of students that first day, asking for a show of hands to see who was studying food science and who was in microbiology.

“What are you in?” he asked Barrangou, who replied, “Chemical engineering.”

Elsewhere in the classroom, Lisa, a graduate student in food science, heard Barrangou’s voice and tried to catch a glimpse of him. 

“And then a few weeks later, we eventually met and then a few years later got married,” Barrangou says with a smile, acknowledging that it sounds like he’s embellishing the story. But Lisa’s memory confirms it. The couple has three kids.

Entrepreneurial Instincts

After earning a master’s degree in food science in 2000 and a doctorate in functional genomics in 2004 at NC State, Barrangou went to work for biosciences company Danisco in Wisconsin.

In the process of developing better starter cultures for yogurt and cheese, Barrangou and his team’s research identified an adaptive immune system in bacteria, known as CRISPR-Cas9, that functioned as “molecular scissors.” CRISPR technology is now used for precise genome editing in an array of fields, from food to medicine to forestry.

Barrangou was the lead author of a 2007 article in the journal Science about the discovery. His career at Danisco, later acquired by DuPont, was thriving. He was promoted 10 times in nine years, becoming a global research and development director leading a large team with plenty of resources.

“However big, however impactful that one large corporation was, I still felt very constrained,” Barrangou says. “I knew I could do more with less. I had that conviction. So after nine long winters in Wisconsin, I’m like, I’m going to go back to academia to do more translational science than in industry.”  

He spoke to his mentor, Todd Klaenhammer, and entertained offers from several universities. Again, NC State beckoned. “I came back home,” Barangou says.

In his time away, Barrangou had also gained hands-on experience commercializing products while earning an MBA. He co-founded Intellia Therapeutics, the first of five startup companies, during the transition from DuPont to NC State.

He valued the opportunity to design research and collaborate with scientists across multiple disciplines with strong support from university leadership, starting with former Chancellor Randy Woodson. 

“I’m entrepreneurial and adventurous in the first place, and that really unleashed, I think, the potential that I had in the right place, at the right time and with the right people,” he says. 

Barrangou went on to co-found four more companies: Locus Biosciences, TreeCo, Ancilia Biosciences and CRISPR Biotechnologies. 

‘A Product of NC State’ 

After a dozen years as a professor at NC State, Barrangou believes that, in the long run, his greatest impact will come from mentoring students. 

“I’m in my 50s now,” he says. “There’s only so much time left and so much that I can do.”

His students, however — dozens of them — will multiply that impact. 

“They’re going to work in the food industry, the ag industry, the pharma industry, the biotech industry,” Barrangou says. “Some will work in academia, nonprofit organizations, governmental agencies here in North Carolina, domestically in the U.S. and in the rest of the world.

“These people are going to develop drugs that save lives. They’re going to develop foods that billions of people are going to eat,” he says. “They’ll develop technologies that are going to enable industries and companies to achieve their commercial goals and success.” 

And he looks forward to seeing students from his lab graduate, the most meaningful “product launch” of all. 

“They’re a product of NC State,” he says. “And that goes full circle with alumni, because I’m twice an alum of NC State. My wife is twice an alum of NC State.”

To support the development of future scientists and NC State alumni, Rodolphe and Lisa Barrangou have established the Barrangou Undergraduate Wolfpack Endowed Scholarship, which provides merit- and need-based scholarships to CALS undergraduate students.

Barrangou anticipates welcoming alumni back as they contribute through their inventions, philanthropy, patents, startups, guest lectures and mentoring. 

“With the next generation, I’m paying forward what the late, great Todd Klaenhammer did for me, and what his mentor did for him before then,” Barrangou says. “And what one of my trainees will do in their turn.”