Description du projet
Automatiser le tri des œufs de poisson pour rationaliser l’innovation biomédicale
Petit poisson tropical de la famille des cyprinidés, le poisson zèbre a eu un impact considérable sur la recherche biomédicale. Il comporte presque tous les gènes humains et produit des centaines de descendants chaque semaine. Les œufs restent transparents au début du stade larvaire, rendant possible l’observation microscopique non invasive. Son développement rapide signifie que les hypothèses peuvent être testées en un minimum de temps. Contrastant véritablement avec la facilité et la vitesse avec lesquelles les œufs sont produits et se développent, le tri et l’inspection manuelles de milliers d’œufs par jour représentent un obstacle majeur. EggSorter développe un plan de marketing et de commercialisation pour un système automatisé destiné à rendre le processus plus rapide, plus facile et plus efficace, afin de faciliter la découverte et l’innovation dans de nombreux domaines.
Objectif
This project aims at bringing to the market a device that combines innovative micro-engineering design and machine learning methods to automatically inspect and sort miniature biological entities, in particular the egg of zebrafish Danio rerio, which is a common model for studies in genetics, development biology or toxicology. This EggSorter device will have a direct impact in research groups at universities and in the industry that are intensively using such organism in their studies, and that have to invest a large amount of resources for tedious tasks such as the manual sorting of thousands of egg cells every day, or the continuous inspection of these organisms for several hours or days. During this project, we will collaborate with end-users to estimate the technology readiness level of the device for the identified markets, using prototypes that were developed during the recently finished FET ASSISIbf project. In conjunction with the assessment of this technology, we will create a business plan that will include a study of the market opportunities and possible strategies for industrialization and commercialization of the device. Finally, we will create a roadmap for the initialization of a spin-off, which goal will be to bring to the market a product that will not only simplify the work of hundreds of researchers around the world, but also allow to identify novel features related to the development of embryo inside egg cells and new drug discoveries, which will have a high impact on the society in the future.
Champ scientifique
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinepharmacology and pharmacydrug discovery
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesgenetics
- medical and health sciencesclinical medicineembryology
- natural sciencescomputer and information sciencesartificial intelligencemachine learning
- medical and health sciencesbasic medicinetoxicology
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
CSA - Coordination and support actionCoordinateur
1015 Lausanne
Suisse