Light on Claude Grison, a bio-inspired eco-chemist – Marraine 2023

Light on Claude Grison, bio-inspired eco-chemist and Marraine 2023

Podcast Put your science down on Campus FM [04/2023]

For the 2023 edition of the Occitanie Exposcience, we are fortunate to welcome as Marraine Claude Grison, Director of Research at the CNRS (Occitanie East delegation) and Eco-chemist (CNRS/Univ. Montpellier), specialist in the restoration of degraded ecosystems and the exploitation of associated phytotechnologies. She runs the Laboratory Bio-inspired chemistry and ecological innovations (ChimEco) in Montpellier.

A recipient of 12 Innovation Awards, including the CNRS Innovation Medal, Claude Grison is first and foremost a chemist of the Vivant who managed to get off the beaten track by interested in biology and scientific ecology while her journey did not predestine her to work with these themes.

In 2008, after studying virulent bacteria, she became passionate about the unique and remarkable adaptability of plants. It is following the request of 4 of her students for help on a work on plant decontamination that this chemist with a curious mind sees her journey changed direction! For 5 years, she will work as a chemist and ecologist among the biologists of the Centre d'écologie Fonctionnel et évolutionnel (CEFE), before creating an interdisciplinary laboratory (ChimEco).

His research is based on resource-based solutions. This new approach has first led to progress in understanding the adaptation strategies of plants and associated microorganisms to respond to attacks such as pollution. For example, some plant species are able to develop in metal-element contaminated environments and even sequester toxic pollutants in their leaves or roots. This research has provided innovative solutions to soil and aquatic systems decontamination and identified new integrated and bio-inspired rehabilitation approaches. Recent research has shown the possibility of decontamination of water contaminated with endocrine disruptors and various pesticides. Given the importance of the results obtained, Claude Grison co-founded the BIOPROTECTION and BIOINSPIR Laboratories in 2020. Its objective is twofold: to support efforts to control the multiplication of invasive alien plant species in compliance with the rules of use, and to clean up highly contaminated industrial effluents using this ecological technology which can lead to the end of problematic industrial sludges and exposed to climatic hazardshttp://www.bioinspir.com/

Far from being waste, these plants derived from remediation plant technologies (phytoextraction, rhizofiltration, biosorption) are valued in an unprecedented and internationally recognised way. Taking advantage of the remarkable capacity of some plants, living or dead, to bioconcentrate transition metals into leaves or roots, it has proved that it is possible to transform metals derived from contaminated plants into biosourced metal catalysts for organic synthesis. This original approach is the first example of a chemical catalyst based on phytotechnologies. It offers the first prospect of valuing this unique biomass and initiates a new branch of green chemistry: ecocatalysis.

Ecocatalysis represents an essential economic added value to support the development of ecological solutions financially. It also represents a real revolution in the green and sustainable synthesis of very useful molecules in applications as varied as medicine or cosmetics.

This discovery resulted in a large number of large-scale publications, patents and solutions that quickly went beyond the scope of research to integrate the industry.

In 2022 she received the prestigious European Inventor of the Year Award from the European Patent Office. Her laboratory holds 36 patents filed by her and her team (on behalf of CNRS and the University of Montpellier).

Claude Grison defines himself as « Researcher » And we are honoured to be able to count on her as the patron of this new edition of Exposcience.

She will be present on Friday 2 June for the official visit of the Occitanie Exposcience to young people and part of the day.

Sources:

https://www.cnrs.fr/en/person/claude-grison

https://www.lemonde.fr/science/article/2022/10/15/claude-grison-une-chemiste-bio-inspired-a-la-conquete-de-l-industrie-verte_6145961_1650684.html