A new device to analyse the regional variations of mechanical properties in cells and tissues: prototyping and assessment of commercial potential for drug discovery applications

Mechanomics refers to the measurement of mechanical properties at the microscopic scale in biological tissues.

Strong hopes are currently placed on mechanomics to evaluate quantitatively how a treatment or a gene expression affects the stiffness or strength of a tissue, with major impacts expected in drug discovery, diagnostics and genomics screening.

However, there is a pressing need for new instrumentation technologies in mechanomics.In the BIOLOCHANICS ERC CoG project, we developed and validated a novel multimodal technology addressing these challenges.

Our technology can perform the following actions: 1. apply controlled loads on tissue samples, 2. measure the induced bulk deformations at the micron level and 3. map the distribution of local stiffness of these tissues.Our technology shows very competitive potential for mechanomics in general.

However, as an innovative technology, it remains now at the stage of a technological concept with a first laboratory application (TRL2-3) achieved within the ERC CoG BIOLOCHANICS project.

Our global objective in MECHANOMICS-POC is to reach TRL 6 in order to take it further towards a commercial innovation: make a first integrated prototype, test it in an intended environment, and refine the comparison with existing technologies.

Our specific objectives are (O1) to build an integrated user-friendly prototype; (O2) to determine further IPR strategy; (O3) to establish the commercialization strategy including market research, industrial partnerships and lead management; (O4) to validate the prototype in real-world conditions and present it to industrial stakeholders in the identified sectors.Beside the development and assessment of the prototype demonstrator, we will focus on the future exploitation and commercialization roadmap of this technology, which is aimed at becoming a standard laboratory equipment or service for fundamental research in life sciences and for drug discovery applications.