Description du projet
Des pinces optiques permettent aux scientifiques de mener des entretiens d’embauche avec des cellules T
Les immunothérapies contre le cancer fonctionnent en stimulant la réponse immunitaire naturelle de notre organisme. L’une des étapes clés consiste à lier les cellules T aux antigènes des cellules cancéreuses. Des traitements personnalisés innovants s’efforcent d’identifier les cellules T les plus efficaces et de les recruter. Toutefois, jusqu’à présent, il n’y avait pas de moyen pour évaluer directement la liaison. IMMUNOTRAP est sur le point de changer cette situation. Leur technologie exploite les pinces optiques, ayant obtenu un prix Nobel, en utilisant une lumière laser très concentrée pour manipuler des objets aussi petits qu’un seul atome. Ces objets subissent une force en raison du transfert d’élan provenant de la dispersion de photons. IMMUNOTRAP exploite les capacités des pinces optiques pour évaluer la liaison des cellules T à leurs antigènes, leur permettant de sélectionner les meilleures candidates pour le travail.
Objectif
Cancers exhibit a large heterogeneity in terms of genetic mutations, so they respond differently to the same drugs. This is why oncology is rapidly drifting towards treatments with new disrupting personalised inmuno-oncology therapies based on adoptive T-cell transfer (ACT). These therapies aim at selecting the most efficient T cells against tumors and transferring them back to the patient. This kind of Immunoassays are generally carried out with endpoint measurements like Surface Plasmon Resonance or Flow Cytometry. However, these techniques do not allow assessing the binding process between the immune and the target cell, which represents a fundamental step of the recognition phase where large efforts against cancer focus.
IMPETUX has developed a solution to address this unmet need. The characterization of this affinity will be achieved through the measurement of the interaction force between them with IMMUNOTRAP: a platform for cell screening based on IMPETUX‘s optical tweezers. This technology uses a highly-focused laser light to mechanically interact with the sample without physical contact. The recent 2018 Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to the intellectual father of this technique for his ground-breaking invention in the 1980s. However, it was not until few years ago that forces could start being measured on non-homogeneous samples, such as cells, thanks to the technology developed by IMPETUX.
The IMMUNOTRAP has the potential to become the workhorse in the screening of the best performance receptors for their use in immunotherapies and offers IMPETUX the opportunity to address a high-growth potential market: the pharmaceutical industry and clinical diagnosis. It represents, therefore, a key opportunity to boost the company’s growth. Thus, the objectives of the present innovation project is precisely to confirm the potential of the proposal to create value and to identify the most suitable marketing and commercial routes for a successful market entry.
Champ scientifique
Programme(s)
Régime de financement
SME-1 - SME instrument phase 1Coordinateur
08029 BARCELONA
Espagne
L’entreprise s’est définie comme une PME (petite et moyenne entreprise) au moment de la signature de la convention de subvention.