Socio-economics

  iBraiN actively develops and maintains collaborations with industry. Any significant new findings discovered by iBraiN's scientists are thoroughly reviewed for patentability, prospective diagnostic and therapeutic applications, and industrial exploitation.

iBraiN is working in close collaboration with Inserm Transfert. This structure oversees and supports the patenting procedures to ensure sustainability of iBraiN patenting endeavors. Inserm Transfer follows our research activities to determine which goods and technologies could be developed and for which market in order to spark industrial interest. It also supports technical operations by designing pertinent proofs of concept and/or prototypes. Additionally, Inserm Transfert also supports the creation of start-ups.

The iBraiN Management Committee will take dedicated actions to ensure the successful creation of start-ups with the support of Inserm Transfert.

Since its creation, one company started at iBraiN, RhéaWave. Currently, iBraiN's researchers are named inventors or co-inventors on more than 10 applications for patents or their extensions. 13 patent families have been filed, and about 20 agreements (with KeyObs, Inviscan, Solstice Pharmaceuticals, Curium Pharma, Sanofi,...) are finalized annually. 

Within the framework of CIFRE (Convention Industrielle de Formation par la Recherche)  program, iBraiN also supports multiple PhD candidates (i.e. 1 CIFRE PhD grant/year on average) during their training.The CIFRE program provides companies such as Siemens, Carestream, Vermon, with financial assistance to recruit a PhD student whose research work, supervised by iBraiN, will lead to the PhD defense. It constitutes a lever for initiating and strengthening public-private cooperation in R&D and promoting the employment of doctors. It contributes to the innovation process of companies and their competitiveness.

RheaWave is an innovative company from iBraiN and the University of Tours. Specialized in ultrasound technologies, RheaWave proposes a  non-destructive and contactless acoustic rheology. The company benefits from a regional network of industrial partners for the development of  its sensor. RheaWave develops solutions for the industrial quality control of the texture and viscoelasticity properties, especially in sectors such as foods,  cosmetics, concrete and plasturgy. RheaWave also proposes material ultrasound characterization, in either fluids or solids, multiphasic, granular or evolutive complex mediums.
 

The  cocaine derivative (E)-N-(4-fluorobut-2-enyl)2β-carbomethoxy-3β-(4′-tolyl)nortropane, or LBT-999, is a highly relevant imaging tool, particularly in the context  of Parkinson's disease (PD). [18F]LBT-999  has been extensively characterized in rodent and non-human primate models, in which it demonstrated its capability to explore in vivo the Dopamine Transporter (DAT) localized at the dopaminergic nerve endings as well as at the mesencephalic cell bodies. In lesion-induced rat models of PD, [18F]LBT-999 was able to precisely quantify in vivo the dopaminergic neuron loss, and to assess the beneficial effects of  therapeutic approaches such as pharmacological treatment and cell  transplantation. Finally, clinical data demonstrated the  efficiency of [18F]LBT-999 in PD diagnosis.
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