Periodic Reporting for period 1 - COMMiT (Cancer Organoids Multiplexed Screening in Microfluidic Textile chips)
Reporting period: 2020-11-01 to 2022-10-31
This project was aimed at providing a proof-of-concept for the the valorization, industrialization and exploitation of two technologies that have been invented and scientifically validated during the ERC-adg CellO (From cells to organs on chip. The first innovation is the possibility to grow 3D cellular aggregates (organoids or spheroids) in a « droplet microfluidic » format, and to perform high throughput screening of compounds on these aggregates, involving multi-steps protocols and multiple biomarkers. The main competitive advantage of the technology is a reduction by a factor about 100 of the number of cells needed per assay. The second innovation is the possibility to prepare the microfluidic éléments by textile technologies, thus reducing fabrication cost, and opening the route to a long-awaited démocratisation of the microfluidic technology. The technologies are protected by two patents, one of which has been granted in the US during the negociation phase of the project. Three other national phases, including Europe, are still under negociation with patent offices. The range of potential applications is wide, encompassing biomedical ones such as toxicity assays, drug screening, organs-on-chips, regenerative medicine, but also « soft robotics », endoscopes or intelligent textiles. The project has advanced on two fronts : first, trying to go as far as possible in the investigation of industrial and economic viability of an applications dedicated to drug screening, targeting specific applications in cancer, namely drug development and drug testing on patient samples for personalized medicine. Technological validation and characterization was achieved, and a business plan for the creation of a startup was prepared, anticipating a creation within a timeline of 1.5 to 2 years, a time to market from creation of 3-4 years, and a gross revenue > 100M€ 6 years after creation ; As a second target, the project also performed a wider preliminary market analysis, and proposed several complementary or alteranative scenarii of valorization. The pros and cons of each scenario were analysed and summarised. These complementary scenarii concerned in particular : i/ codevelopment and technological transfer to an existing company ; ii/ regenerative medicine and organs-on-chips ; iii/ intelligent textiles and medical wearables. Dissemination was achieved by several posts, towards the general public by a post on Curie extranet and by twitter , and to the scientific community by a post on Curie Intranet.