A successful first edition of Pasteur Innov Day

The first Pasteur Innov Day, held on campus on July 7 and organized by the Department of Technology, the Technology Transfer and Industrial Partnership Department (DARRI) and the management team at the institut Pasteur Microbes & Santé, was attended by around a hundred industrial and academic partners. "There is no innovation without technology" was the motto of a day that provided plenty of opportunities for discussions with industry players interested in harnessing the Institut Pasteur's outstanding technological expertise and know-how to overcome their technological barriers.

Twelve of the Institut Pasteur's units and technological platforms took part in the event:

• Diagnostic Test Innovation and Development Core Facility (Head: Thierry Rose)

• Chemogenomic and Biological Screening Platform (Head: Fabrice Agou)

• Molecular Biophysics Facility (Head: Patrick England)

• Antibody Engineering Platform (Head: Pierre Lafaye)

• Crystallography Platform (Head: Ahmed Haouz)

• Mass Spectrometry for Biology (Head: Julia Chamot-Rook/Mariette Matondo)

• Immuno-monitoring Platform/Cytometry and Biomarkers (Head: Milena Hasan)

• Production and Purification of Recombinant Proteins Technological Platform (Head: Stéphane Petrès)

• Biomaterials and Microfluidics (Head: Samy Gobaa)

• NanoImaging (Head: Matthijn Vos)

• Photonic BioImaging (Head: Nathalie Aulner/Spencer Shorte)

• Institut Pasteur Biological Resource Center (CRBIP) (Head: Fay Betsou)

Each platform or facility presented its research and expertise at a dedicated stand.

At the opening session, the Institut Pasteur President, Stewart Cole, emphasized that basic research is the springboard for groundbreaking innovations and that the Institut Pasteur continuum is the key to its innovation model. Isabelle Buckle, Vice-President Technology Transfer and Industrial Partnership, spoke about the importance of technology in recent innovations in biology. Franck Mouthon, President of France Biotech, launched the event by explaining that it was fully in line with France's ambition to become a European leader in health innovation.

The afternoon session focused on schemes to promote collaboration between industry players and academics, with presentations from Pascal Giat from the ANRT, Romain Vidal from the Greater Paris Region and Jérémy Berthuin from Bpifrance. Antoine Pau, acting CEO of startup SpikImm, and Gabriel Sirat, CSO at BioAxial, then spoke about their respective collaboration with the Institut Pasteur and the huge potential of public-private partnerships.