Expert public laboratories are pooling their cutting-edge skills with those on show at SME Photon Lines to break the boundaries of optical microscopy.
Following the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2014, we can now use super-resolved microscopes (nanoscopes) to observe biological activity inside living cells in real time. But these technologies are costly and tricky to use.
Based in France’s Ile-de-France region, Photon Lines, an SME specializing in bio-imaging optical distribution, aims to develop proprietary products for European, American and Asian markets alongside its distribution activities.
The company had expressed the need for developing high-performing, low-cost nanoscope technology based on the technologies being developed in French public research centers.
The SATT Sud-Est and Erganeo worked together to identify expert laboratories in their region, the Institut Fresnel, Unité Mixte de Recherche 7249 Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, École Centrale Marseille, and the Neurophotonics laboratory at the Université de Paris-Descartes, respectively.
The latter developed complementary technological building blocks that paved the way for developing an extremely effective, affordable piece of equipment, costing around five times less than market prices.
The SATT Sud-Est manages a strategic patent for an invention that enables microscopes to be adjusted automatically and super-resolved micrographs to be taken. It entrusted Erganeo with a commercialization mandate, with the company then also investing in a maturation project. An operating license for the patent was signed on March 28 on Erganeo’s premises, with Eric Dréan (CEO of Photon Lines, on the left of the photo) and Naceur Tounekti (Deputy Chief Executive Officer of Erganeo, on the right of the photo) both present.
This is a win-win collaboration between two SATTs with a view to transferring an intellectual property assets package to a manufacturer.
It took under two years from meeting with Photon Lines to the innovation going to market in a commercial product.
A technology transfer acceleration success story!
