Happy birthday ! 11 years of activity in the virology field ! 🥼

Celebrating 11 years of activity in the virology field.

Happy Birthday NeoVirTech ! Today we are celebrating 11 years of activity in the virology field.

NeoVirTech is a biotechnology company developing autofluorescent viruses for antiviral discovery and measurement of disinfection processes in operational conditions. Over the past years, we have developed new research programs, the last one being the development of a platform for the precise measurement of oncolytic virus activities from in vitro to in vivo.

Some facts about us:

Inception: February 6th, 2014. NeoVirTech is created following a maturation program led by Toulouse Tech Transfer and the winning of the I-Lab contest from Ministère chargé de l’Enseignement supérieur et de la Recherche and Bpifrance, Emerging category. Start of the amelioration of the ANCHOR technology to visualize virus infection in living cells.

2015: development of the first autofluorescent Herpesvirus where infection and replication can be visualized in living cells. Collaboration with the Ecole Nationale Vétérinaire de Toulouse for the application of the ANCHOR technology to poxviruses of veterinary interest. Collaboration with Claude Gros team at the ICMUB – Institut de Chimie Moléculaire de l’Université Bourgogne Europe, cover of ACS infectious disease for the discovery of nitrocorrole as antiviral agents. Collaboration with Ecole des Mines d’Alès for the development of autofluorescent baculoviruses.

2016: Development of an ANCHOR tagged oncolytic virus in collaboration with Transgene. Development of the first autofluorescent ANCHOR tagged Adenovirus (hAdv5 ANCHOR), visualization of Adenovirus replication in living cells in collaboration with Harald Wodrich at the university of Bordeaux. NeoVirTech wins the I-Lab contest for innovative companies from MESR BPI France, development category, launching a major program for the capture and labeling of poxviruses. Creation of the first autofluorescent baculovirus with IMT Mines Ales.

2017: Sandrine Kappler-Gratias and Sokunthea Top join the team to work on poxvirus development and screening methods. Several screening campaign are launched. Notably, start of the collaboration with Institut de Chimie Organique et Analytique – ICOA UMR7311 and Luigi Agrofoglio for the development of broad spectrum antivirals. Development of the first ANCHOR autofluorescent lentivirus (lenti-one GEG-Tech ) where transduction and copy number/stability can be visualized in living cells.

2018: Charlotte Quentin-Froignant joins NeoVirTech as a CIFRE PhD student from ANRT – Association Nationale de la Recherche et de la Technologie in collaboration with ENVT to develop tagging systems for animal Herpesviruses. Publication of hCMV and HAdv5 articles in back-to-back in Journal of Virology. Collaboration start with the CRCT to investigate the activity of a specific oncolytic virus. Collaboration start with Francesca Di Nunzio to tag HIV1 with ANCHOR technology.

2019: Collaboration start with Ali Alejo from CISA on the development of autofluorescent AFSV. Cover of RSC Medicinal chemistry for the publication of two articles describing broad spectrum antiviral activity of fluorocorrole on Herpes and poxviruses with ICMUB. Generation of a recombinant ANCHOR EHV1 virus.

2020: Funding from the Agence de l’innovation de défense to develop medical countermeasure in case of poxvirus outbreak. Funding Readynov from La Région Occitanie / Pyrénées-Méditerranée to develop and validate disinfection processes for Covid19. Elie Marcheteau joins the team to work on biodefense program. Collaboration with Syntivia to investigate disinfection efficiency of products directly on living human skin. Publication of HIV-1 ANCHOR and cover of Journal of Virology by Francesca Di Nunzio. Development of imaging systems to visualize SARS-CoV-2 infection.

2021: start of the HSV1 ANCHOR program. collaboration with VirHealth to propose normative disinfection testing. Collaboration with IMACTIV-3Dto image and analyze oncolytic virus infection in 3D using spheroids. Collaboration with Fred Pontvianne to adapt the ANCHOR system to A. Thaliana.

2022: Mpox emergence, collaboration with Institut de Recherche Biomédical des Armées to test antivirals. Cover of Nature microbiology in Dec2022 . Strong activity in disinfection testing and antiviral discovery. Opening of poxvirus in vivoantiviral testing using lethal challenge in mice

2023: development of SARS-CoV-2 imaging on reconstituted bronchial epithelia. Development of the LAVR-289 molecule as a broad spectrum antiviral agent showing animal protection in a lethal VACV poxvirus challenge. Presentation at the International Society for Antiviral Research (ISAR) ICAR 2023. Construction of armed oncolytic viruses and development of an integrated platform for the test of oncolytic viruses from in vitro to in vivo (Perseverance program).

2024: Perseverance program obtains funding from AAP France 2030 in collaboration with CRCT, Imactiv 3D and ENVT. Charlène Lopez Duboscq joins the team to work on in vivo oncolytic virus testing. Closing of the LAVR-289 program, showing 100% survival of mice infected with Mpox. Our VACV ANCHOR virus obtains the “used by French armed forces” label, collaboration with IRBA for risk mitigation in BSL4 laboratories. Collaboration with VirexpR to develop air borne poxvirus contamination methods for management of air quality.

2025: Guillaume Labrousse joins the team to develop innovative 3D models for oncolytic virotherapies. Three papers on LAVR-289 to be submitted.

What a story ! and still ongoing. Thanks to all our collaborators, partners and customers for this wonderful adventure.

 

February 2024, NeoVirTech celebrates its 10 years of activity.

February 2024, NeoVirTech celebrates its 10 years of activity.

We are extremely proud to announce that NeoVirTech celebrate its 10 years of activity today. We want to thanks all the people that made this possible. We have prepared an article that describe what we have done over the past 10 years in the virology field and the story behind the company. The article is concluded by a word from our CEO to anyone that wants to create a biotech company. A special thanks to all the institution that supported us through all these years: Occitanie region, BPI France, CNRS, Toulouse Tech Transfer, AID and many more. Also, we wouldn’t went this far without the implication of our team. We are driven by innovation and look forward into the future of virology discovery.
NeoVirTech 10 years article

NeoVirTech 10 years article

Long term collaboration on new generation antivirals

Long term collaboration on new generation antivirals

NeoVirTech announces its collaboration with the French Technology Transfer Accelerator Office SAYENS to develop and optimize a new generation of broad spectrum antivirals for human and animal health.

Origin of the project

This project begins with the discovery of nitroccoroles as anti-herpes molecule in a first screening campaign in collaboration between NeoVirTech and ICMUB (UMR CNRS 6302, uB, Dijon), highlighted by the July 2015 ACS Infectious Disease cover. These compounds are commonly used as ligands for metal complexes but never for their potential anti-viral properties. First generation compounds displayed promising antiviral activity in vitro.

An agreement to foster innovation

SAYENS, a French Technology Transfer Accelerator Office is dedicated to detect and invest into the best research project for potential industrialization ; and NeoVirTech, a French biotechnology company focusing its activity on antiviral discovery and virus/viral vector imaging, now enter into an agreement to develop second and third generation antiviral compounds. Backed by the Chemistry Group of Prof. C. P. Gros from ICMUB and the Medicinal/Pharmaceutical school (uB), this collaboration already led to the generation of more than 200 variants and optimized antivirals with new mechanism of action, nM activity with selectivity indexes over 500. Optimized compounds did not display any toxicity in vivo and are active on a large variety of dsDNA viruses, leading to 2 international patents fillings. Optimized variants are not only highly potent, they are also very simple to synthesize with a “one to two step” reaction. Upscaling is therefore made easier. On a multibillion dollar market such as the infectious disease market, new molecules offer a promising return on investment.

We are very excited to be able to visualize the pre-integration complex and the fate of the HIV1 genome in living cells. The ANCHORTM technology is for us the state of the art technology allowing for the first time thorough investigation of HIV1 biology and response to antiviral treatment directly in living cells. The technology is the only one compatible with CLEM (correlative light-electron microscopy) to dissect the ultrastructural structure of the HIV1 particle. The fact that the ANCHORTM technology does not modify HIV1 virus biology offers an unprecedented view of the dynamics of this virus in living cells.
Favicon NeoVirtech
Franck Gallardo, NeoVirTech
CEO
We have decided to engage a significant investment in this project based on its future economic potential and high value for human and animal health. Working with an expert in antiviral evaluation, such as NeoVirTech, insure us the suitable way to develop our technology with best chances of success.
Sayens
Catherine Guillemin, SAYENS
CEO

Autofluorescent African Swine Fever Virus tagged with ANCHOR

Autofluorescent African Swine Fever Virus tagged with ANCHOR

 

We are very proud to announce that in collaboration with Dr Ali Alejo Herberg from the Centro de Investigación en Sanidad Animal (CISA-INIA) and Dr. Germán Andrés from the Centro de Biología Molecular “Severo Ochoa” (CSIC-UAM), we are able for the first time to visualize African swine fever virus infection and replication directly in living cells. This ASFV contains the ANCHOR system and is therefore autofluorescent. Another example of the power of our technology to investigate rapidly the behavior of deadly viruses and find efficient countermeasures.