A team at the Institute of Materials Physics and Chemistry in Strasbourg has been developing methods for synthesizing dendritic materials for the past ten years. The startup Superbranche, founded by two female researchers, markets dendritic and magnetic nanoparticles that will facilitate early diagnosis and targeted therapy for cancer.
Nanomedicine uses nanoparticles to target diseased cells—particularly tumors—and minimize the side effects of treatments. A major challenge is controlling the size of these particles so that they can be injected intravenously and transported to the affected organ. Another challenge is to “vectorize” these particles—that is, to attach biologically active molecules to them that will enable them to precisely target the intended cells. To overcome these two obstacles, two researchers from the Institute of Physics and Chemistry of Materials in Strasbourg propose using dendritic and magnetic nanoparticles. Delphine Felder-Flesch, a CNRS research director, and Sylvie Begin-Colin, a professor at the University of Strasbourg and director of the European School of Chemistry, Polymers, and Materials in Strasbourg, founded the startup Superbranche to commercialize these materials, the result of about a decade of research.
The startup will very soon have about ten products in its catalog—nanoparticles, dendrimers, or nanoparticles coated with a dendrimer—which will be offered to nanomedicine laboratories, both in public research and in the private sector. But it is also preparing a preclinical study in partnership with the Dijon Cancer Center (Centre Georges François Leclerc), a project for which Superbranche won the Grand Prize at the 2019 i-Lab competition, France’s largest deep tech innovation contest.
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