On August 4th, Life & Soft and CEA officially presented their collaboration agreement. Signed in April 2020 for a period of three years, this partnership in bioinformatics, genomics, artificial intelligence and cutting-edge imaging technologies aims to develop an unprecedented range of services to meet the needs of personalized care and based on innovative cross-analysis. In this context, the IDMIT department (Diseases Models for Innovative Therapies) of the François Jacob Institute of Biology of the CEA (CEA-Jacob) is hosting the sequencing laboratory of Life & Soft in its premises on the Fontenay-aux-Roses site.
The collaboration between Life & Soft and the CEA aims to offer innovative cross-analysis, combining imaging data generated by the cutting-edge technologies of the IDMIT (Diseases Models for Innovative Therapies) department of CEA-Jacob and genomic data produced by Life & Soft.
Accelerating the transition between preclinical and clinical research
IDMIT has crucial assets to meet the challenges of infectious diseases affecting humans: rare expertise in preclinical and clinical research, laboratories and technological resources, particularly for in vivo imaging, at the cutting edge of innovation for the study of pathogens and host response. In addition to its experience in bioinformatics, genomics and data analysis, Life & Soft brings complementary resources to IDMIT’s expertise and technologies: in vivo optical and nuclear imaging, flow cytometry coupled with mass spectrometry.
Through this merger, Life & Soft is pursuing its partnership strategy in fundamental research with public bodies and CEA-Jacob is strengthening its links with diagnostics and genomic research as part of its mission on pre-clinical and clinical research on human infectious diseases. The collaboration between the two partners will accelerate the transition from preclinical research to clinical trials, in order to improve the patient care pathway.
First results from SARS-Cov 2
The collaboration is already reflected in a common research axis on the SARS-CoV 2 virus, which has been rapidly developed over the last few months in response to the health emergency. It has thus enabled the identification of co-morbidity profiles, thanks to metagenomics and analyses of other biomarkers derived from sequencing, patient viroma and age-related differences in susceptibility. Initial screening tests have been successfully completed and further sequencing is planned.
These results were made possible by the complementarity between CEA’s infrastructure, adapted to the exploitation of samples, and the use by Life & Soft of nanopore sequencing as a high throughput, rapid and precise analysis method. In this context, Life & Soft’s expertise in bioinformatics and biostatistics has also been put to good use and reinforced by the use of artificial intelligence algorithms.
Translated from Partenariat Life & Soft et CEA en bio-informatique, génomique, intelligence artificielle et technologies d’imagerie de pointe
