Meiogenix Sas, A French Genomic Start-up Company, Raises 1,2m € From Investors

Dec. 9, 2010 - PRLog -- Meiogenix SAS closes its first round of financing with Kurma Biofund last 26th of November
with an investment of 1,2M !. The company, a recent spin-off from the Institut Curie and the
INRA-transfert in Paris, holds from the Institute Curie and the INRA an exclusive worldwide
license for a technology that allows the modulation of the homologous recombination in
eukaryotic cells.
« We are pleased to have Kurma Biofund as investor. This gives us the opportunity to further
develop this breakthrough technology and validate it in several organisms. Our technology
facilitates the natural process that introduces genetic diversity, allowing the generation of
novel natural varieties of organisms with interesting commercial potentials. » says Giacomo
Bastianelli, President and CEO of Meiogenix. The technology is based on Spo11, the
enzyme that causes the double-strand break in the DNA and initiates the process of meiotic
recombination before gamete formation. The Spo11-assisted technology, developed by Dr.
Alain Nicolas who leads a CNRS group at the Institut Curie, allows targeted stimulation of
natural genetic exchanges between the parental chromosomes leading to the diversification
of the parental genetic information in progenies. « The mainstream application is the
generation of novel varieties of microorganisms, plants and mammals, derived from natural
variants. The beauty of the technology is that it helps a natural mechanism of the cell where
the new varieties obtained will not be considered GMOs » explains Alain Nicolas.
« This technology is very innovative and promising, but still needs two to three years of
development prior to being used commercially. The financing brought by Kurma Biofund will
allow filling this gap. In addition, Kurma Biofund brings around the table a group of
experienced professionals who will help the company to make the right decisions. We and
INRA do hope that Meiogenix will be able to help putting on the market either new drugs for
our patients, or new varieties of plants contributing to better feed humanity » says Damien
Salauze, director at Institut Curie.With the investment in Meiogenix, Kurma Biofund is
realizing its first spin-off from the Institut Curie. « We are very proud of our investment in
Meiogenix, a French company co-owned with Institut Curie and INRA-Transfert. I must thank
Institut Curie, founding academic partner of Kurma Biofund, and Damien Salauze and his
team for the professionalism and stamina that they have demonstrated in this complex
process. Based on this first success, we are confident that more companies will be founded
from this partnership with Institut Curie. This success also demonstrates the relevance of
Kurma’s tech transfer approach that creates focused companies around breakthrough
science that has been discovered and patented by the academic partners of the fund » says
Thierry Laugel, managing partner of Kurma Life Sciences Partners.

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Meiogenix is a French biotech company that holds an exclusive and worldwide license for a technology that modulates the frequency of homologous recombination in eukaryotic cells, facilitating the generation of novel natural varieties.