Professor Catherine Bennetau-Pelissero has been working on phytoestrogens from soy and other plants since 1988. Her studies went from the molecule to the clinical approaches including mechanistic explorations in vitro. She discovered an endocrine disrupting effect of soy-isoflavones in the Siberian sturgeon reared in France on soy-containing diet. She discovered that the 50-fold sensitivity difference between the rainbow trout and the Siberian sturgeon could be attributed to specific liver metabolisms. She developed human pharmacokinetic analyses as well as rodents and clinical efficiency studies.

Since 1996, Professor Bennetau-Pelissero worked as an expert for several Food-safety Agencies in France and Europe.