SATTs unite to transfer bio-imaging technology and reinvent the super-resolution microscopy market
Expert public laboratories combine their cutting-edge skills with those of the SME Photon Lines to push back the limits of the optical microscope
Following the 2014 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, it is now possible to use super-resolution microscopes - nanoscopes - to observe biological activity inside living cells in real time. But these technologies are expensive and difficult to use.
What's at stake? To develop a high-performance and inexpensive nanoscope
Photon Lines, a Paris Region SME specialising in the distribution of optical bio-imaging equipment, aims, in addition to its distribution activity, to develop proprietary products for the European, American and Asian markets. The latter had expressed the need to develop a high-performance, low-cost nanoscope technology based on technologies developed in French public research centres.
SATT Sud-Est and SATT IDF Innov have coordinated to identify expert laboratories on their territory, respectively the Fresnel Institute, Joint Research Unit 7249 Aix-Marseille University, CNRS, École Centrale Marseille, and the Neurophotonics Laboratory at the University of Paris-Descartes. The latter have developed complementary technological building blocks enabling the design of high-performance equipment at a modest cost, about five times lower than market prices.
An unprecedented format for cooperation between two SATTs
SATT Southeast manages a strategic patent for an invention that allows the microscope to focus automatically and produce super-resolution micrographs. It has entrusted a valorisation mandate to SATT IDF Innov, which has invested in a maturation project. A licensing agreement on this patent was signed on March 28th at SATT IDF Innov in the presence of Eric DREAN, President of Photon Lines, and Naceur TOUNEKTI, Deputy Managing Director of IDF Innov.
It is a novel form of cooperation between two SATTs to transfer a package of intellectual property assets to an industrialist. Less than two years will have elapsed between the first meeting with Photon Lines and the marketing of the innovation in a commercial product.
A successful gamble for the acceleration of technology transfer!
Practical information
@SATTse_ @IDFInnov @photonlines @InstitutFresnel @univamu @CNRS @CentraleMars @UParisDescartes #microscopie #nanoscopie
