Tech transfer
The themes covered by the LabEx Development, Epigenesis, Epigenetics and lifetime Potential (DEEP), namely cell signaling pathways, epigenetics, heritability and stem cells, and their involvement in developmental and disease processes, all have the great potential to have a broad socio-economic impact. The coordination of fundamental and applied research that utilizes a wide diversity of model organisms and cutting-edge technologies for our understanding of complex questions in the life sciences, represent central tenets of the DEEP program. For example, there is increasing emphasis on the importance of epigenetic mechanisms and stem cells in human health and disease, with high potential for novel therapeutic and biomarker development, rendering these topics important for careful communication and for technological and industrial exploration.
The active participation of several members of DEEP in the Coordination Support Action (CSA) for the LifeTime initiative will enable the further development and sharing of advances in these fields, in the context of fundamental understanding, human health and technological advancement.
DEEP works closely with the experts in the Institut Curie Technology Transfer and Industrial Partnerships Office to support researchers in technology transfer and entrepreneurship initiatives. Since its creation in 2012, teams within DEEP have:
The Stride Initiative
In 2019, the LabEx DEEP started the Stride initiative to promote early-stage projects to start the technology transfer project. Specifically, the DEEP Stride initiative aims to identify and subsequently support and accompany the development of early-stage innovative projects with high technology transfer potential. Stride provides both financial support in addition to logistical assistance in order to bring the projects to the next level of technology transfer readiness. Overall, this initiative enables DEEP to identify promising projects in addition to providing a very fast, reactive and flexible support for these projects.
A tech transfer success story
In December 2018, Alena Shkumatava (lncRNAs in Vertabrate Development, UMR3215/U934) was one of sixty awardees of the ERC Proof of Concept 2018 grant. The objective of this highly selective European funding, which can be up to 150k€ over the period of 18 months, is to explore and exploit the innovative and commercial potential of results stemming from an ERC-funded frontier research project. In France, only four applications were selected. In preparing the application, Alena worked closely with the technology transfer coordinator of the LabEx DEEP and the Institut Curie Technology Transfer and Industrial Partnerships Office to develop a robust business strategy for her project. Alena’s project will utilize an innovative technology that her team developed under her ERC starting grant for the high-throughput identification and quantification of RNA-Protein interactions in living cells, called incPRINTä, as a platform for RNA-targeted drug discovery (patent pending).
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LabEx DEEP Tech transfer & Science Coordinator: Shauna Katz
Institut Curie Business Development Contact - Biology, biochemistry, chemistry: Bernardin Akagah
