INSERM: THE FRENCH NATIONAL SCIENTIFIC AND MEDICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE INSERM (www.inserm.fr) is the largest public health and medical research structure in France with 15 000 researchers, engineers and administrative staff, structured into nine thematic institutes. Each Institute has forged close partnerships with public University hospitals and private industrial research establishments to fulfil its missions. INSERM is involved in 16 national research which deliver innovation and competitive research in their fields. The Institute of health research technology covers all technological developments essential to biomedical progress from fundamental to clinical level and transfer knowledge to therapeutic solutions.
INSERM coordinates several national research infrastructures of high-level competitive research to deliver innovation in their fields and playing a role in method development and improvement.
CITHERA and INGESTEM are dedicated centers for medical and industrial applications based on pluripotent stem cells and derivatives for multiples diseases.
CITHERA, THE CENTER FOR IPCS THERAPIES. The Center for IPSC Therapies of INSERM is the unique national core center hosting the National HAPLOBANK Platform translating stem cell research into advanced therapies. CITHERA obtained in 2020 the label of Industrial Accelerator Platform aiming to bridge the gap between scientific discovery and its translation into new medicine at early stage and market in collaboration with private biotech and pharmaceutical companies.
CITHERA is supported by the Avenir Investment Program (PIA), the National Research Agency, and the Innovate French Committee of Big Challenge. CITHERA develops breakthrough therapies from pluripotent stem cells and off-the shelf PSC-based therapeutic products for cancer, following a strategic roadmap driven by medical and industrial needs. Based on specific expertise in the field of stem cell manufacturing, IPSC regulation and innovation concepts, these concentric synergistic actions will promote an economic virtuous circle with industrial players, to provide high value and extensive acceleration of medical science from maturation phase to the clinic and the market.
INGESTEM, THE NATIONAL FRENCH IPSC INFRASTRUCTURE. Coordinated by CITHERA the French National Infrastructure INGESTEM for pluripotent stem cells and tissue engineering (www.ingestem.com) promotes all medical applications of human embryonic (ESC) and induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSC) with the support and expertise of stem cell centers, who pioneered the derivation of the first human embryonic stem cells (ES) and played leading roles in the field of cell reprogramming. INGESTEM fosters the development of up-to date technologies and stem cell research applications in disease modeling in oncology, frequent and rare diseases. Based on breakthrough technologies in bioengineering the infrastructure provides a pipeline of research grade IPSC from conception to medical personalized devices and scalable bioproduction of IPSC-derived cells and human derived organoids for high-throughput screening campaigns.
