Science Days 2011: over 200 secondary school students visted the IECB

Every year, the IECB teams open their labs to secondary school students from Aquitaine for the Science Days. The animation “All the way long from plant to medicine through wine – the chemistry of polyphenols” proposed by Rémi Jacquet and Emilie Petit (Quideau team) was a great success: 200 students walked in the door of their lab within 2 days!

Thursday October 13th, 4 pm. A small group of final year baccalaureate students are welcomed in the hall of the IECB by Rémi Jacquet and Emilie Petit from the Quideau’s team. En route for the lab for a quick workshop on the chemistry of polyphenols!

In the first place, Rémi Jacquet shows how the chemists from his team, starting with 1 kilo of oak wood, manage to extract 1 gram of vescalagin. Why such a hassle? The Quideau team has demonstrated in 2011 that this chemical compound, which is found in wine aged in oak barrels, could open new avenues for treating osteoporosis (see article).

Then, Emilie Petit offers a quick demo of the synthesis robot. Thanks to this instrument, chemists are able to generate systematically numerous chemical reactions within a short amount of time. For students, such instrumentation comes straight from American TV shows on forensic experts.

At the end of the workshop, questions burst forth: “Have you ever made great discoveries?”, “How long have you been studying to become a researcher ?”. Although she thinks that "the studies look far too long", Sandra believes that “the work carried out by researchers is of great interest since it can lead to the discovery of new therapies against diseases we currently don’t cure”.