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Bioinspir, scientific rigor to create natural and organic treatments

Information updated on 30/11/21

Bioinspir observes the living to take inspiration from their ability to heal.

Claude Grison, la directrice de ChimEco et directrice scientifique de Bioinspir© Maugendre David

Claude Grison, director of ChimEco and scientific director for Bioinspir ©Maugendre David

Founded in 2020 in Montpellier, at the Biopôle Euromédecine science park, Bioinspir is a deep-tech laureate of the i-Nov innovation competition, and benefits from a French Tech Emergence Endowment. Raising 1 M€ just a few months after it was created, the startup already has eight employees and is inaugurating a brand new field known as eco-catalyzation®. This process enables the company to use chemical synthesis to transform substances and materials that are unusable in their current state, into natural and marketable biosourced products.
 
Bioinspir leverages work done by the ChimEco laboratory for bio-inspired chemistry and ecological innovations, a CNRS and University of Montpellier joint research laboratory. The company was co-founded with the Technofounders startup studio and CNRS.
 
Also located at Biopôle Euromédecine, ChimEco has developed two ecological technologies that have been tested at the Malines site in Saint-Laurent-le-Minier, north of Montpellier in the Gard department. The ground at the former zinc mine was so devastated that nothing could grow there. ChimEco rehabilitated the ground by planting several varieties of local plants, including the Thlaspi alpestre ( species of flowering plant in the Brassicaceae family), which develops the ability to capture pollutants in its leaves.
 
The leaves loaded with zinc are then used as an ecological catalyst that can produce different types of biosourced molecules that are in high demand for manufacturing medicine, materials, cosmetic products, and more. That’s where ChimEco’s second product comes in.

“This process has enabled us to obtain several thousand molecules likely to lead to new products that can replace pesticides, synthetic insecticides, and even molecules of petrochemical origin,” highlights Claude Grison, director of ChimEco and scientific director for Bioinspir. She has also been recognized throughout her career for her research, earning over 10 different awards, including the CNRS 2014 Innovation Medal and the Academy of Sciences Alexandre-Joannidès Prize in 2016.

Leveraging these technologies, Bioinspir already has several clients, some attracted by its unique depollution process, others by the molecules it produces.

“We are doing sustainable chemistry with total respect for the environment,” summarizes Claude Grison.

Bioinspir, a new rising star for Med Vallée.

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