Start-ups: a SIRIC leverage effect
Structuring translational research is an important SIRIC mission. Supporting key posts, institutional structures and the establishment of innovative technologies, SIRIC has an impact beyond its research program.
These structuring actions not only permit the acceleration of research development within Institut Curie but also to grow collaborations and industrial partnerships.
This dynamic environment manifests concretely with scientific results which can lead to patents or new businesses. Here, we present 3 new initiatives led by Institut Curie researchers who have been supported by the SIRIC :
One Biosciences: the power of single cells and precision medicine
One Biosciences is a "discovery motor" made up of multidisciplinary teams bringing together bioinformaticians, clinicians and biologists. These teams concentrate on understanding difficult to treat diseases by capturing the heterogeneity of biological systems, revealing rare cell populations and allowing the cellular mapping of these diseases.
Their objective is to generate precision treatments and to discover transcriptomic biomarkers and targets by using single cell technologies.
The start-up is cofounded by Céline Vallot, head of the SIRIC team "Dynamics of Epigenetic Plasticity in cancer" (DEpIC) and Home Biosciences, a risk capital society dedicated to biotechnology.
Egle Therapeutics: developing immunotherapies to target regulatory T lymphocytes (Treg)
Founded by Luc Boblet, biotechnology entrepreneur, and Eliane Piaggio, head of the SIRIC "Translational Research and Immunotherapy" team (TransIm), Egle Therapeutics is a biotechnology startup with a dual approach:
- Exploiting its translational tool to find new therapeutic targets
- Computationally designed resurfaced cytokines acting as antagonists or as selective Treg-agonists
The company is currently building a proprietary Treg modulating drug portfolio.
Mnemo Therapeutics: leveraging epigenetics to create targeted immuno-oncology treatments
Based on the unique skill combination of founders: Michel Sadelain from MSKCC and Sebastian Amigorena from Institut Curie, Mnemo Therapeutics focuses on impriving 3 key characteristics of CAR-T cell therapy:
1. Generating new generation CAR Ts with superior therapeutic characteristics
2. Identifying and targeting antigenic targets "E-antigens" specific to the tumor, shared between patients and/or tumor types, immunogenic and strongly expressed by tumor cells
3. Proposing a new class of treatments that are more efficient, trustworthy and affordable
Mnemo Therapeutics est mise à l'honneur dans l'épisode "L'oncologie abat ses Car-T"