Periodic Reporting for period 1 - Easy SOFT (Easy way to accelerate the scale-up of innovative soft devices for Drug Discovery pipeline)
Berichtszeitraum: 2022-07-01 bis 2023-06-30
Cell&Soft is a Deeptech company based in France (AURA region) which aims to develop, produce and sale innovative solutions for in vitro cell culture, in the field of oncology and stem cell research.
Pain point: Drug development process is very expensive, complex and suffers from many failures. In oncology, the average success rate is less than 4%. More than 80% of drug candidates fail in early clinical phases and this after 5 to 7 years of research. Thus, the efforts mobilized consume considerable human and financial resources, without result.
Opportunities: One of the most important challenges is the lack of reliable, reproducible, and easy-to-use in vitro models, allowing better predictability and/or reliable diagnosis.
Ambition: At Cell&Soft, our ambition is to re-invent in vitro cell culture, by developing innovative devices that act as steppingstones for tomorrow's drug candidates. The objective of Cell&Soft is to accelerate the discovery of new drugs with an average success rate of more than 20%, while limiting the use of animal models.
Easy SOFT project: The Women TechEU program is a great opportunity to achieve our ambition by accelerating the growth of Cell&Soft. The Easy SOFT project must allow us to (1) consolidate our added value by strengthening our POCs and IP financing, (2) prepare strategic and operational commercial deployments, and (3) allow a scale up to a pre-industrial stage to meet the Pharma companies at the international level.
Women empowerment: As a women scientist and CEO, I want to promote the integration of women in science and in leadership roles. I think I can challenge the status quo to create an environment where women can achieve their potential. Through the Women Leadership Program I want to deploy myself as a female mentor and gain access to new networks within the European innovation ecosystem.
Pain point: Drug development process is very expensive, complex and suffers from many failures. In oncology, the average success rate is less than 4%. More than 80% of drug candidates fail in early clinical phases and this after 5 to 7 years of research. Thus, the efforts mobilized consume considerable human and financial resources, without result.
Opportunities: One of the most important challenges is the lack of reliable, reproducible, and easy-to-use in vitro models, allowing better predictability and/or reliable diagnosis.
Ambition: At Cell&Soft, our ambition is to re-invent in vitro cell culture, by developing innovative devices that act as steppingstones for tomorrow's drug candidates. The objective of Cell&Soft is to accelerate the discovery of new drugs with an average success rate of more than 20%, while limiting the use of animal models.
Easy SOFT project: The Women TechEU program is a great opportunity to achieve our ambition by accelerating the growth of Cell&Soft. The Easy SOFT project must allow us to (1) consolidate our added value by strengthening our POCs and IP financing, (2) prepare strategic and operational commercial deployments, and (3) allow a scale up to a pre-industrial stage to meet the Pharma companies at the international level.
Women empowerment: As a women scientist and CEO, I want to promote the integration of women in science and in leadership roles. I think I can challenge the status quo to create an environment where women can achieve their potential. Through the Women Leadership Program I want to deploy myself as a female mentor and gain access to new networks within the European innovation ecosystem.
The R&D objectives were to achieve a proof of concept on the use of soft-bottom Petri dishes for Drug Discovery and High Throughput Screening, conducted in a pancreatic cancer model.
The work carried out has made it possible to (1) evaluate the rigidity of healthy and tumoral pancreatic tissue (PDAC) by atomic force microscopy (AFM), (2) to reproduce these rigidities in soft-bottom Petri dishes and (3) to perform Patient-Derived Xenograft (PDX Model) cell cultures.
This work has led to the development of mechano-mimetic pancreatic tumour soft-bottom Petri dishes, suitable for in vitro cell culture of tumour cells and compatible with automatized platform (96-well microplate formats).
The work carried out has made it possible to (1) evaluate the rigidity of healthy and tumoral pancreatic tissue (PDAC) by atomic force microscopy (AFM), (2) to reproduce these rigidities in soft-bottom Petri dishes and (3) to perform Patient-Derived Xenograft (PDX Model) cell cultures.
This work has led to the development of mechano-mimetic pancreatic tumour soft-bottom Petri dishes, suitable for in vitro cell culture of tumour cells and compatible with automatized platform (96-well microplate formats).
For the first time, soft-bottom Petri dishes mimicking the rigidity of pancreatic tumors and suitable for high-throughput screens have been developed. These supports were used (also for the first time) to maintain patient-derived tumor cells (PDX model) in culture.
To ensure that these new products are accepted and used by the Pharma market, we need to supplement these initial results with an in vitro pharmacological screen. However, these preliminary data have already enabled us to get close to the Biotech market.
To ensure that these new products are accepted and used by the Pharma market, we need to supplement these initial results with an in vitro pharmacological screen. However, these preliminary data have already enabled us to get close to the Biotech market.