Partners sought to conduct clinical trials and to response to EU funding calls on neurodegenerative diseases of the central nervous system (CNS) or for the development of disease-modifying drugs.

Short summary Based in Paris area since 2015, a biotech/medtech startup brings a new technology to discover, identify and rapidly detect molecular biomarkers of complex diseases in blood. They have a proof of concept (TRL 6) for a predictive PCR diagnostic test for brain amyloid as a risk factor for Alzheimer's disease. They are currently looking for partners involved in clinical trials on CNS neurodegenerative diseases or disease-modifying drug development. Partners are also sought to respond to EU calls.

Full description The French company is specialized in aptamer engineering to detect biomarkers of complex diseases. Their proprietary technology enables the automation of molecular biomarker discovery, followed by the development of PCR test kits for diagnosis on blood samples. They offer a platform (wet lab and in-silico platform with machine learning data analysis) to discover, identify and rapidly detect molecular biomarkers of complex diseases in blood using Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) and Polymerase Chain reaction (PCR). They are looking for partners involved in clinical trials on neurodegenerative diseases of the central nervous system (CNS) or disease-modifying drug development. Therefore research cooperation and/or commercial agreement with technical assistance are sought. The partnership could also be a joint participation in EU-funding projects. Several calls are relevant. They are currently focusing on the following HORIZON EUROPE calls and JPND calls: • HORIZON-HLTH-2024-DISEASE-03-13- TWO-STAGE: Validation of fluid-derived biomarkers for the prediction and prevention of brain disorders • HORIZON-HLTH-2023-DISEASE-03-07: Relationship between infections and noncommunicable diseases • JPND 2023 RESEARCH CALL ON “LARGE SCALE ANALYSIS OF OMICS DATA FOR DRUG-TARGET FINDING IN NEURODEGENERATIVE DISEASES”

Advantages and innovations

• 1/ Platform advantages:
• 1.1 Agnostic biomarker discovery: Process enabling identification of non-canonical molecular targets, different folds in proteins, and complexes among proteins and metabolites. => Access to biomarkers that can provide a deeper understanding of the drug mechanism and disease progression
• 1.2 Automate the development of disease-specific PCR-based diagnostics (Fully automated process: from biomarker discovery to standard diagnostic test for disease specific blood biomarkers)
• 1.3 AI on blood: Identifying biomarkers for complex diseases (using DNA aptamers, sequencing tools and in-silico platform with machine learning) =>Access to biomarkers that can indicate target engagement and/or downstream pharmacologic effects of drugs.
• 2/ INNOVATIVE: first blood diagnostic test for Alzheimer's Disease (AD):
• 2.1 Predictive Diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease for individuals with MILD COGNITIVE IMPAIRMENTS. The test predicts whether individuals have high or low brain amyloid deposition in the brains based on a qPCR analysis of their blood. The test will facilitate disease-modifying drugs clinical trials.
• 2.2 Cost-effective blood-based diagnosis of the AD risk factors. The test permits to easily assess disease progression over time at the molecular level.

Technical Specification or Expertise Sought The company is already in contact with several European biobanks and potential partners to address projects related to neurodegenerative diseases. They are currently looking for additional partners to conduct clinical trials and also to response to EU funding projects.
Contact / source: NEXT EEN Widgets (europa.eu)