The "Brain to Market" Summer School is an intensive 5-day training program to learn through practice the key skills of health entrepreneurship. Offered by the Open Brain School, the Paris Brain Institute's training organization, since 2015, this year's event brought together 40 international participants: neuroscience students from Sorbonne Université, young researchers from the ParisBrain Institute, business profiles from the Collège des Ingénieurs, and designers from the CY design school. During this week of immersion, they had the opportunity to receive the privileged support of a team of experts from scientific and clinical research and entrepreneurship. They then worked in teams to design innovative solutions for patients, their families, medical professionals and researchers.
2022 edition dedicated to epilepsy
In France, 700,000 people are affected by this chronic neurological disease which can present in different forms depending on its origin. Approximately 50% of epilepsies begin before the age of 10 and 40,000 new cases are diagnosed every year.
Research at the Paris Brain Institute focuses on both the developmental phase of the epileptic brain (epileptogenesis) and on the onset of the seizure itself (ictogenesis). This double approach aims at being able to intervene very early on the phenomena that would be potentially responsible for the occurrence of an epileptic syndrome, but also to find the means to intervene on the process of seizure triggering.
In order to organize this day, the Open Brain School was able to count on the involvement of Vincent Navarro (AP-HP / Sorbonne Université), who coordinated the scientific and medical aspect of this edition of the Summer School as director of the epileptology unit at the Pitié Salpêtrière Hospital and co-director of the "Dynamics of epileptic networks and neuronal excitability" research team at the Brain Institute.
A multidisciplinary teaching team
During the first two days, participants had access to presentations by researchers and experts in innovation and clinical development from the Paris Brain Institute, clinicians from the AP-HP, and entrepreneurship experts from the Collège des Ingénieurs. They also benefited from the testimonies of the patient association Epilepsie France, SMEs and industrialists in the sector: Bioserenity, UCB Pharma, and innovation financing structures such as Bpifrance. Thanks to this diversity of actors, participants experience the key steps of an innovative project in health: understanding the problems of the pathology, proposing solutions that are relevant for users and viable from a scientific and economic point of view.
Recognition from the fields of research and entrepreneurship
The projects developed by the participants during the week were presented to a jury of scientific and business experts on Friday, September 16. The winning project as well as the most relevant projects will be studied by the CareLab, the Living Lab of the Paris Brain Institute, to consider further development.
Following the jury's deliberation, the Paris Brain Institute would like to congratulate all the candidates of this 2022 edition for the quality of their projects and in particular the winners. Below is the final ranking:
- Winning project : Braincelet, smart device which senses a potential upcoming seizure by Volatile Organic Compounds emitted by the epileptic patients.
- Jury's honorary prize : EΨ (EPSY), a smart anti-drowning shirt that saves lives.
