The Rhône-Alpes region covers an area roughly equal to the size of Switzerland or Belgium and ranks among Europe's top dynamic and economically strong regions. It boasts an exceptional skills-base across the board of scientific disciplines and in the field of life sciences in particular. The region is a major player in the biotechnologies sector, with around 140 companies in this field. These include major international firms, able to foster and inspire other companies, and also small and medium-sized companies and business start-ups. Biotechnologies in the Rhône-Alpes region have grown on an international scale, since local companies are supported by a diverse network of services, encouraging the sector's expansion. These include:

  • Educational structures to provide the employment market with personnel trained for all levels, even the most senior positions, according to the different staffing requirements in the sector.

  • Public and private sector research teams bringing renown to the region in numerous domains Centres of excellence which supply the cutting edge, high performance tools required for R&D.

  • A medically-focused environment, including three university hospital complexes.

  • Infrastructures for promoting the creation of new businesses and encouraging foreign companies to move into the region.

  • Service companies in the fields of R&D, legal services, industrial property, marketing and recruitment, etc.

  • Local financing potential to supplement national and European sources of finance.

  • An entrepreneurial culture backed by regulations which are ever more favourable to the creation of new businesses, especially by researchers.

  • A regional political strategy fuelling local development of biotechnologies.

  • Networks and structures entirely devoted to biotechnologies, to unite and drive organisations forward together.

  • An international event, attracting specialists from across the globe to Rhône-Alpes, BIOVISION.

Thanks to this comprehensive and effective environment, the Rhône-Alpes region is clearly identified as one of the world's foremost centres of biotechnology. Several disciplines are especially well-developed: virology and immunology, post genomics, neurosciences, cancerology, bio services and nanobiotechnologies. The Rhône-Alpes region contains numerous centres of excellence thanks to active contribution from universities, collectivités territoriales (regional authorities), financing organisations and the private sector. Three of these have been chosen to illustrate the region's strength in this area, Rhône-Alpes Genopole, the Cancéropôle Lyon Rhône-Alpes and neurosciences.

RHÔNE-ALPES GENOPOLE

The Rhône-Alpes Genopole was created in 2000, by five of the region's universities and research centres: the Université Claude Bernard Lyon I (UCB), the Université Joseph Fourier in Grenoble (UJF), the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Lyon (ENS-Lyon), the CEA-Grenoble (Atomic Energy Commission) and the INRIA- Rhône-Alpes (The Freench National Institute for Research in Computer Science and Control) in Grenoble. The different partners' complementary research has enabled the Genopole to develop a Functional Genomics research strategy for analysing the role of genes in the development and integrated functioning of living organisms, in order to transfer new technologies in the fields of biotechnology and health. The Rhône-Alpes Genopole is a coherent combination of platforms, centred around three main programmes:

  • Exploratory Genomics, based in Lyon and Grenoble, develops bioinformatics research and applications, in order to dissect the structure and function of genomes, through the study of transcriptome, proteome and comparative genomics;

  • Proteomics and Structural Genomics, is based mainly in Grenoble in the future National Resource Centre for Structural Proteomics. Its objective is to determine the diversity and function of protein complexes, using a combination of high throughput mass spectrometry, structural and functional analysis of proteins and bioinformatics;

  • Functional Exploration of Genes, based mainly in Lyon, aims to study the physiological roles of genes in living organisms using a combination of experimental genetics and phenotyping with non-invasive in vivo technologies such as metabolism analysis, histopathological analysis and imaging. The programme is centred around Animage, a multimodal small animal imaging facility, supported by the Anigène, Animet and Anipath platforms.

In order to drive the economic development of genomic research, the Rhône-Alpes Genopole has established a partnership with the Rhône-Alpes Futur foundation, backed by the Regional Council of Rhône-Alpes and the Regional Delegation for Research and Technology. Thanks to this partnership, the Genopole benefits from an economic development structure guaranteeing that its technological platforms and research programmes can rely on communication and industrial foresight.

Rhône-Alpes Genopole's ambition is to present itself as a major regional instrument in functional genomics and thus to participate in the structuring of the industrial biotechnologies sector in France. The Rhône-Alpes Futur foundation accompanies and directs this development. This major instrument will bring together the platforms developed to cover a wide technological spectrum, from the gene to the complexity of life, backed by scientific expertise in the following areas: cancer, providing technological support to the Lyon-Rhône-Alpes Canceropole, hormone signalling metabolic pathologies (diabetes, obesity), cellular membrane proteomics (plants, stem cells, animal cells), microbiology (biodiversity, metabolic networks), virology, etc.

With this development perspective, Animage, the multimodal imaging facility for small laboratory animals, is sure to become a point of national reference. The organisation of proteomic and structural biology platforms, supported by bioinformatics, will culminate in the setting up of the National Resource Centre for Structural Proteomics. Lastly, the technological and scientific development of nanogenomics, in direct collaboration with the Nanobio programme, will enable the organisation to remain at the forefront of international competition.

The Cancéropôle Lyon Rhône-Alpes

With more than 270,000 new cancer cases detected each year in France, the fight against the disease is a national priority.

The French government, the Rhône General Council, the Rhône-Alpes Region and the Greater Lyon regions are mobilised against cancer's attack on public health and are committed to an innovative programme, the Cancéropôle Lyon Rhône-Alpes.

The mission of the the Cancéropôle Lyon Rhône-Alpes is to make the Rhône-Alpes region a site of international reference in the fight against cancer, through the promotion of the region's existing strength in oncology, thus boosting the economic and industrial development of Rhône-Alpes.

The region benefits from exceptional scientific and medical resources in cancer, in particular the Ecole Normale Supérieure, the CEA, Inserm (the National Health and Medical Research Institute), the CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research) the Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire, the three university hospital complexes, the universities of Lyon, Grenoble and St Etienne, and the Genopole.

Lyon has also gained an international status in cancer epidemiology thanks to the IARC (International Cancer Research Centre), the Rhône-Alpes Cancer Registries and the biostatistics service at the Hospices Civils, Lyon.

This major regional potential is reinforced by the region's significant industrial companies in the field of cancerology.

The Cancéropôle Lyon Rhône-Alpes identified two unifying themes:

  • Epidemiology

The objective is to reinforce the different regional strengths by creating a European research centre into molecular epidemiology, which will focus on the links between the individual and society, covering the themes of nutrition and cancer, environmental risks and chemoprevention.

  • Biotherapy

Combining cellular therapy, gene therapy, and immunotherapy, this project aims to accelerate the clinical development of new anti-cancer drugs from the field of biotechnologies. The initiative will focus on the organisation of a network of cellular therapy units and anti-tumour response evaluation structures between Lyon, Grenoble and St Etienne, and on the creation of a clinical production unit for carrying out clinical testing of phases I and II in humans. From these priorities, five technological research platforms have emerged:

  • a medical imaging platform, using molecular cartography for tumours in vivo, to help personalised therapy

  • a pharmacogenomic platform to individualise anti-cancerous therapies

  • a functional genomic platform for cognitive research towards the molecular cartography of tumours

  • a biological resource centre to organise an existing collection of human tissue, within a cooperative network.

  • an informatics and bioinformatics platform to provide support for the other technological platforms

These technological platforms will be developed by a network of experts from university, hospital and industrial backgrounds, thus optimising the transfer of technologies and innovation.

At the core of the Cancéropôle Lyon Rhône-Alpes' work is the patient. The primary objective being to improve the patient's medical care and quality of life.

NEUROSCIENCES IN THE RHÔNE-ALPES

Around Neurosciences, the Rhône-Alpes region presents an exceptional concentration of leading teaching hospitals and major scientific centres equipped with the most recent technological tools. Several disciplines work together to reach excellence in Neurosciences (physics, applied mathematics and computer science, chemistry, biochemistry, psychology, micromechanics, surgery etc.).

The town of Lyon has two majors hospitals:

the psychiatric hospital (Le Vinatier) with 1,200 beds, well-know for its research in schizophrenia. The neurological hospital (Pierre Wertheimer, 442 beds) is one of the world's foremost hospitals in multiple sclerosis, neuro-oncology and neurogenetic deseases. It holds the world's largest and longest-running database of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients. EDMUS (European Database for Multiple Sclerosis), set up as part of a European initiative against MS, is a standardised system for official European information collection.

In addition to these two teaching hospitals, a research centre the Institut Fédératif des Neurosciences de Lyon (IFNL) has been created. It encompasses five clinical and academic research centers (the Lyon Hospices Civils, Inserm, the Université Claude Bernard, the CNRS and the Le Vinatier Hospital complex). The IFNL is composed of thirteen research teams, i.e. a total of 300 researchers, clinicians, academics, academicians, hospital practitioners, PhD students and post-PhD scholars. The IFNL is responsible for Neurobiotec, an initiative which dates back to January 1st 1997. The aim of Neurobiotec is to optimise the preclinical and clinical research capacities of the neurological hospital in Lyon.

Moreover, Grenoble boasts the Neurosciences Institute (180 researchers), a clinical, medical and surgical research centre, specialising in neurology, neurosurgery and functional exploration of the nervous system.

This exceptional regional research is supported by imaging facilities, analytical tools which are particularly well-developed:

Grenoble has a 3-tesla MRI platform, used exclusively for research purposes. This equipment was a main project supported by the Rhône-Alpes region, the National Ministry of Research, Inserm, the Joseph Fourier University and hospital. It provides images of unequalled resolution and, under optimal conditions, the so-called 'cerebral activation' MRI can be applied. This technique allows cerebral function to be studied in healthy individuals or in patients under different stimulation conditions (somaesthesia, visual, aural, olfactory) or activities (motor or cognitive).

The second main platform is the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility (ESRF), medical beamline which is a unique facility in Europe. It is dedicated to synchrotron radiation imaging techniques as well as tumour irradiation therapy.

These new facilities are part of the project for establishing the Clinical and Biological Neurosciences Institute in Grenoble which should be completed at the Grenoble University Hospital complex in 2005.

Three high technology medical imaging facilities have already been introduced, or are currently being installed in Lyon, at the neurological hospital site. A Positron Emission Tomography (PET) and Medical Research Centre (CERMEP) has been in operation since 1989, developing studies focusing on metabolic imaging of epilepsies and cerebral tumours in particular. To this, will be added a 1.5-tesla MRI facility which will be soon operational, and a - Magnetoencephalography facility (MEG) which is due to be installed during the second half of 2004. These three facilities are part of a regional project to develop a regional platform of Neuroimaging excellence. Lastly, within the framework of the Genopole, an imaging facility for small laboratory animals (Animage) has been installed in the East sector of Lyon and includes ultrasound, X-ray scanner, MRI 7 T and PET imaging facilities.

Rhone-Alpes region is a leader in neurosciences. The research and clinical teams work principally in multiple sclerosis, neuro-oncology, epilepsy, pain, schizophrenia, circadian rhythm disorders, as well as neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's or Alzheimer's diseases, linked to the aging process and pathologies of mobility.

To break through outside your frontiers, nothing can beat networks between players and local authorities to give projects strength, coherence and legibility. The Rhone-Alpes region and towns are playing the complementarity card for the biotech-health pole, a genuine boost for the economy.

The bio-cluster project combines with this co-operative logic to form a concept very dear to towns and bioregions wagering on globalisation.

This advertorial was written by ARTEB (Rhone-Alpes Agency for Development of Medical Technologies and Biotechnology) ARTEB is supported by the Rhône-Alpes Region.www.cr-rhone-alpes.fr