News

Prix Isabelle Musy pour les femmes entrepreneures en sciences et technologies

February 10, 2016

D’une valeur de CHF 50’000.-, il vise à encourager l’entrepreneuriat des femmes dans le domaine des sciences et des technologies.

Ce prix est ouvert aux femmes diplômées d’une haute école de Suisse Romande et du Tessin.

Attention, délai d’inscription jusqu’au 25 mars !

 

Pour plus d’informations sur les conditions et les délais : Site Vice Présidence innovation et valorisation EPFL

Business concept training

December 2, 2015

The direction of the University of Lausanne supports the development of entrepreneurship especially among its students and its researchers from all faculties. The university offers you the opportunity to take part in the next  Business Concept Training supported by the CTI (Commission for Technology and Innovation).

Are you inspired to create or join a start-up? Are you keen to acquire a first comprehensive skill set to make you operational and effective in a company? Are you looking for opportunities to go out of your daily work activity to link up with potential future co-founders / business partners?

Discover the fast track, hands on, Business Concept training, designed and taught by experts and experienced startup founders for ambitious researchers, students & faculty members from a University, a University of Applied Sciences or a research Institute.

In 10 evening sessions of individual coaching by entrepreneurs, you will learn how to think, act like an entrepreneur and transform an idea into business concept, to play multiple key roles in a startup. During an inter-regional team-building day at the beginning of the course, you will have the opportunity to meet other participants from different universities and domains. At the end of the semester, teams who submitted the best concepts are selected and rewarded with a prize enabling them to continue their development.

Apply before December 20, 2015 for the spring semester 2016 (Starting on February 23, 2016) and join our network of start-up founders! The admission is free but is subjected to a selection process. Your selection is confirmed in mid-January by email.

Good English knowledge will be necessary to follow the training.

Video

Informations/inscriptions

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Contact
Ramona Traber
business.concept@epfl-innovationpark.ch
Tel: +41 21 693 8336

Charity and academic collaboration aims to find drug treatment for lymphoma

September 29, 2015

London, UK, Lausanne, Switzerland, 24 September 2015, MRC Technology and the University of Lausanne are collaborating to find new drug treatments for diffuse large B cell lymphoma, the most common type of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

MALT1 (Mucosa-associated lymphoid tissue lymphoma translocation protein 1), an immunomodulatory enzyme, is required for the effective triggering of an immune response. However, dysregulation of MALT1 is also associated with some subsets of lymphoma, including diffuse large B cell lymphoma, suggesting that MALT1 could be a promising drug target for these types of cancer.

Professor Margot Thome-Miazza, Associate Professor, University of Lausanne said: “We have previously identified a novel way of regulating the catalytic activity of MALT1 via a protein modification called ubiquitination.  We are now working with MRC Technology to harness this regulatory mechanism and discover small molecule inhibitors that specifically interfere with the ubiquitin-linked form of MALT1.”

Justin Bryans, Director, Drug Discovery, MRC Technology said: “It is encouraging that we can build on the work of the University of Lausanne and bring new treatments to patients. These drugs could potentially also treat other types of lymphoma associated with MALT1 over-activity, for example MALT lymphoma and Mantle Cell lymphoma.”

Céline Lafourcade, Licensing manager at Powering Academia-industry Collaborations and Technology Transfer (PACTT) explained: “MRC Technology with its unique capabilities constitutes an ideal partner to further develop this innovative technology emanating from academic research.”

MALT1 inhibitors may also have wider therapeutic applications owing to MALT1’s role in immune regulation, and could potentially be used to limit overactive immune reactions in autoimmune diseases.

Contacts

At PACTT
Céline Lafourcade
Licensing manager
E: celine.lafourcade@chuv.ch
T: +41.21.314.49.58

At MRC Technology
Liezel Tipper
PR and Communications Manager
E: liezel.tipper@tech.mrc.ac.uk
T: +44 (0)20 7391 2772

About MRC Technology
MRC Technology is an independent life science medical research charity committed to drastically improving positive patient outcomes everywhere. As a champion for human health, MRC Technology partners with academic, biotechnology, pharmaceutical, and charity organisations to move promising medical research forward into viable and accessible patient treatments. Our people combine commercialisation and IP management skills with diagnostic and drug discovery expertise, specialising in small molecule and therapeutic antibodies. MRC Technology projects have led to the approved drugs Tysabri®, Actemra®, Entyvio® and Keytruda®, changing the lives of countless patients by harnessing the potential of science.

About the University of Lausanne
The University of Lausanne (UNIL) is composed of seven faculties, active in the field of Medicine, Life Sciences, Geosciences, Environment, Business, Humanities and Social Sciences. Approximately 14,000 students and 2,800 researchers, including 500 professors, study and work on its three campuses. The University of Lausanne comprises more than 180 teaching or research units that are working on projects of national and international significance. Interdisciplinarity (clinical science and fundamental sciences) within the Faculty of Biology and Medicine (FBM) is the key factor to open, fluid research, which has placed Lausanne University Hospital (CHUV) and the University of Lausanne at the forefront of life sciences.

About PACTT
Founded in February 2000, PACTT (Powering Academia-industry Collaborations and Technology Transfer) is the joint technology transfer office of the University of Lausanne (UNIL) and the University Hospital of Lausanne (CHUV). The primary mission is to transfer the researchers’ innovations to the economy for public benefit.

(source: MRCT)

InnoPACTT: a financial support to create your start-up

August 27, 2015

Autumn CALL 2015

You are a UNIL-CHUV scientist

and would like to create a start-up and

need a financial support to start

 

InnoPACTT image

Apply for a one-year InnoTREK grant to launch your UNIL-CHUV spin-off!

PACTT, Technology Transfer Office of UNIL-CHUV, is calling for start-up projects for the InnoTREK grant, part of InnoPACTT, a financial fund to accelerate innovation and UNIL-CHUV spin-off creation. With this InnoTREK support, PACTT wants to encourage researchers with innovative ideas to jump into the entrepreneurship adventure.

Deadline for application: September 28, 2015

Documents available on:

https://www.pactt.ch/innotrek/

For more information please contact us on:

innopactt.info@chuv.ch

Phones:         021.314.39.84

                        021.314.49.58

                        021 314.82.19

 

 

Bioinnovation Day 2015, CHUV Lausanne: News from Life Sciences Research

August 26, 2015

Article written by Nicole Regier and Thi-Nhu Y Hoang posted July 6, 2015 in Geneva Business News

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On June 23rd, the seventh edition of Bioinnovation Day was held at the CHUV in Lausanne. Bioinnovation Day provides a platform for scientists and start-ups to present their life science projects to potential investors and partners from the industry. It was first held in 2006 in Geneva, and has since welcomed more than 150 innovative projects. Held every other year, the seventh edition was organized by PACTT, the Technology Transfer Office of UNIL-CHUV.

This year, over 200 participants attended the meeting. It was organized around several keynote speakers, and gave 34 researchers the opportunity to present their projects in five-minute-long pitches. The poster sessions, which took place in a friendly atmosphere during the breaks, offered participants more information on the projects, and gave them the opportunity to network, exchange ideas and discuss.

The presentations were divided into four sessions related to Human Therapeutics, Research Tools, Medical Devices, and Digital Health and Diagnostics. During the first session, a roundtable discussion was held by four investors: Tom Gibbs from Debiopharm Diagnostics, Thomas Goebel from Neomed, Michèle Ollier from Index Ventures and Otello Stampaccia from Omega Funds. They gave advice on what should be considered when developing a new product and at which stage of development potential investors should be contacted. All of them agreed that the time and money needed for establishing a new start-up should not be underestimated.

Philippe Dro from GlycoVaxyn and Vincent Charlon from Anergis SA presented their companies’ histories and how they got where they are today. One important point that came out of the discussion was that even with a very good achievable and customizable idea, the circumstances must be beneficial in order to succeed.

The 34 project pitches were given by researchers from public and private institutions aiming to create start-up companies, as well as investigators from existing companies seeking additional investments. The projects were highly diverse: from a surface treatment for implants which improves the integration of the implants into living bone by mimicking bone-like characteristics, to a new technique for separation of different cell types, of which the first application will be to isolate sperm cells from samples obtained from rape victims in order to identify the DNA profile of the offender. Other innovations included a comfortable and discrete insulin delivery system for diabetes patients, a device for skin cancer screening, and a simple and cheap sterilization system for medical instruments in hospitals in developing countries.

Each year that the event is held, a jury of nine scientists evaluate innovative projects from western Switzerland in order to award the Bioinnovation-Eclosion Prize, which for the second time, included a cash award of CHF 10,000. The jury selects a number of projects and invites spokespeople to present them before the event in order to determine the winner. This year, it was awarded to Gilles Weder from CSEM (Centre Suisse d’Electronique et de Microtechnique SA) for his work on a sensor for measuring the oxygen concentration in cell and tissue cultures.

Source: Site Geneva Business News

PACTT announces a license agreement and development collaboration between CHUV and Biocompatibles

Alban denys photo

PACTT is pleased to announce that CHUV has entered into a license agreement with Biocompatibles, part of specialist healthcare group BTG International, focusing on the treatment of liver tumors, severe blood clots, varicose veins and advanced emphysema.

The agreement covers know-how and a patent protected, sustained release technology as well as sustained release drug product candidates that address unmet medical needs in embolization of a variety of hypervascularized tumors. In addition, CHUV and Biocompatibles are currently pursuing a development program under additional consulting and service agreements.

The goal of the collaboration is to develop a new class of anti-tumor devices aiming to induce severe ischemia coupled with a very high concentration of anti-angiogenic agents in the tumor periphery. “We hope for our patients that this new technique will improve the treatment of primary liver cancers” says Alban Denys, principal investigator and professor at the department of medical radiology at the CHUV. This innovative approach has recently been awarded by both, the Journal of Vascular and Interventional Radiology (JVIR outstanding laboratory research 2014) and by the European Society of Interventional Radiology (CIRSE award of excellence and innovation in interventional radiology 2015).

News from the InnoPACTT Fund: Two InnoTREK grants for CHUV researchers

June 30, 2015

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Two innovative projects from the 2015 spring call have been awarded the InnoTREK grant, a financial support that will allow the laureats to mature their ideas towards a start-up project.

Hosted by Professor Buclin, Division of Clinical Pharmacology at the CHUV, Séverine Petitprez will further develop the software EzeCHiel that will assist physicians in monitoring and adjusting the dosage of medicines to individual patients. Combining sophisticated pharmacokinetic algorithms with a personalized, automated and user-friendly approach the tool is poised to rapidly penetrate the market.

“Most central nervous system disorders are poorly detected before first symptoms appear because of a lack of medical tests to diagnose them appropriately. The need for such tests is therefore great. Early diagnosis could significantly enhance chances for successful treatment, and help in the development of personalized medicine” says Robert Lütjens, founder of the BioLemantis project. During his grant period in the laboratory of Professor Ron Stoop, Centre for Psychiatric Neurosciences, he sets out to establish proof of concept for a new biosensor technology to diagnose autism spectrum disorders.

The InnoTREK grant, organised by the PACTT with the support from the FIT as part of the InnoPACTT fund, sponsors selected researchers at UNIL and CHUV who have the ambition to venture into the business world with their innovative projects. The successful projects are chosen in a competitive process from applications received during the two calls per year. Since the launch in 2014, 9 laureates of UNIL-CHUV have benefited from the InnoTREK grant.