AN ESSENTIAL MISSION FOR THE FUTURE OF QUÉBEC
Axelys integrates innovations from Quebec’s public research into the mainstream of society. Our mission is at the heart of the new 2022 2027 Québec strategy to support research and investment in innovation, launched in May 2022 by the Quebec government. At Axelys, our job is to accompany inventions stemming from public research, to build on the results, then protect and commercialize the innovation. All with the goal of transforming it into an innovation that will be developed by a startup or an established company. Axelys has over 50 employees, including 4 regional managers. The organization also relies on a network of over 40 innovation brokers working jointly with partner research institutions to identify promising inventions stemming from public research throughout Quebec.
NEXPLASMAGEN: A FINE EXAMPLE OF SUCCESSFUL TRANSFER AND COMMERCIALIZATION
NexPlasmaGen, a Montreal-based start-up specializing in medical technology, has developed a new breast cancer treatment with the potential to decrease the rate of localized recurrences.
This new treatment has just passed the preclinical stage and may offer hope to all Canadian women suffering from this type of cancer.
The origins of this project date back to the early 2000s, when McGill University professor Sylvain Coulombe and Valérie Léveillé, a doctoral student at the time, were among the first researchers in the world to test plasma on human cancer cells. With the help of other researchers such as Dr. Philip Wong of the CHUM, they discovered that cold plasma killed cancer cells by triggering apoptosis: the programmed cell death that takes place within an organism to eliminate aged, infected, or dangerous cells.
With financial support from the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation and Axelys, via the Ministère de l’Économie de l’Innovation et de l’Énergie’s support program for organizations involved in research and innovation, the Montreal-based startup is now ready to test a prototype of its technology on CHUM patients.
