GEC combines the understanding of biological processes with the application of innovative biotechnological approaches and technologies lying on the concept of Bioinspiration.

GEC is organized in 2 themes, each being divided in sub-themes.

Plant metabolism and Bioresources (PMB) gathers all aspects related to the knowledge of lipid systems  to optimize by metabolic engineering the production of usual and unusual fatty acids and valorization of whole plant, thus fitting with the concepts of Bioresources and Bioinspiration. In addition to investigating interactions of plants with their environment and their defense mechanisms against pathogens, research activities are conducted on the exploitation of whole plant to identify processes for an ecoresponsible production of biobased molecules in the context of bioreffinery.

Biomimicry and Biomolecular Diversity (BBD) is centred on the exploitation of molecular diversity to obtain molecules capable of recognition and also on the development on nanostructured functional materials inspired by nature and capable of molecular recognition, thus fitting with  the concepts of Bioinspiration and Biomimicry. Antibodies-mimicking products or materials constitute one of the most attractive biological molecules for diagnostic, medical imagery and therapeutic purposes. The research activities cover molecular recognition with the engineering of molecules and materials mimicking effects and functions of biomolecules.

Transverse axes among Themes focus, for example, on bacterial adhesion and metabolic adaptation, antimicrobial peptides, development of biocompatible mimetic materials by green chemistry approaches, and interactions of exogenous agents with living matter.