With its Zebrascreen imaging platform, the Montpellier startup, Azelead, has developed a unique method to fight cancer.
Zebrascreen offers an unprecedented anti-metastatic molecule screening platform that shows the appearance of cancerous metastases and evaluates the efficiency and toxicity of a given molecule rapidly using zebra fish larvae as the test subject. With 90% of deaths caused by cancer related to the spreading of cancerous metastases around the body, Azelead has leveraged its process to develop a very promising anti-metastatic drug compound. "Using strictly physiological mechanisms, zebra fish larvae enable us to see, within two days, whether cells are migrating," explains Laura Fontenille, the startup's CEO and co-founder. "They inform us relatively quickly whether the screened (projected) molecule is able to block the tumor cell migration process and at which step the compound takes action," adds the researcher.
The company's innovation also makes it possible to eliminate toxic molecules very early in the drug development cycle. "Nearly 99% of all drug candidates are abandoned before their first clinical phase, or they are not released on the market because they turn out to be too toxic for humans," says Laura Fontenille. This in-vivo imaging process also avoids tumor induction and dissection, as required for tests on mice. The Azelead molecule is now undergoing preclinical trials.
Assisted in its early days by Montpellier BIC, the startup was founded in 2014 as a spinoff from Institut Pasteur. Azelead has already received several prizes, including a Bpifrance award in its "Emerging" category.
The startup is one of MELIES Business Angels' six innovation laureates for 2017, and has recently set up its offices and team of nine employees at the Sanofi Biopark campus in Montpellier.
Find out more:
- Azelead- Joining health networks- Montpellier Health Capital- Getting assistance from Montpellier BIC
The company's innovation also makes it possible to eliminate toxic molecules very early in the drug development cycle. "Nearly 99% of all drug candidates are abandoned before their first clinical phase, or they are not released on the market because they turn out to be too toxic for humans," says Laura Fontenille. This in-vivo imaging process also avoids tumor induction and dissection, as required for tests on mice. The Azelead molecule is now undergoing preclinical trials.
Assisted in its early days by Montpellier BIC, the startup was founded in 2014 as a spinoff from Institut Pasteur. Azelead has already received several prizes, including a Bpifrance award in its "Emerging" category.
The startup is one of MELIES Business Angels' six innovation laureates for 2017, and has recently set up its offices and team of nine employees at the Sanofi Biopark campus in Montpellier.
Find out more:
- Azelead- Joining health networks- Montpellier Health Capital- Getting assistance from Montpellier BIC
