Imactiv-3D: Our News, Events and Scientific papers

Meet2Win - Oncology Partnering Convention 2022

Our business developer Ludivine Guillaume attends to the 7th edition of the European Oncology Partnering Convention Meet2Win organized by MATWIN in Bordeaux (France)! To discover our services for oncology, do not hesitate to see our dedicated case studies here If you're also attending, do not hesitate to contact her directly!

12 may 2022
Scientific paper on Neuro-muscular junctions quantification

We published a new scientific paper in collaboration with Stephane Lezmi's team (IPSEN Innovation).
In this study, the distribution of neuro-muscular junctions (NMJ) in rat muscles appears to be dependent on the type of pennation. The molecular phenotyping of NMJ will help to better integrate the rat model into study of Botulinum Neurotoxins therapies. Detailed observation of myofibers organization may help clinicians better evaluate the location of NMJ in humans.
Imactiv-3D's team imaged the whole rat muscles in 3D with light-sheet microscopy and designed a custom-built image processing algorithm to detect and count every neuro-muscular junctions. The total number of NMJ found in muscle varies from 4,179 for the Soleus up to 16,318 in the Flexor digitorum brevis muscle.
You can read the full article here

19 apr 2022
Meet us at In-Cosmetic Global

For the first time in its history, Imactiv-3D attends to in-cosmetic global this April in Paris. This leading global event for personal care ingredients connects all the areas of the cosmetics industry. Our business developer, Ludivine Guillaume, is going to this event to meet dermo-cosmetics actors and present our range of services to image and quantify the effects of ingredients on 2D and 3D models.

5 apr 2022
Workshop Organ on Chips

Imactiv-3D will be in Paris for the first Workshop dedicated to the structuring of the Organ on Chips community. Organized by the Biovalley France pole, our CEO Jean-Michel Lagarde and business developer Ludivine Guillaume will be there to meet the actors of the sector.
To learn more about this event, click here, or contact us to learn more about what we can do for organ on chips.

23 feb 2022
New scientific paper on lipid accumulation

We are glad to see our new scientific article published in the European Journal of Nutrition!
This study’s goal was to use models associating intestinal epithelial cells with human adipose cells to screen for anti-adipogenic, pro-lipolytic and thermogenic plant extracts. It showed the potential inhibitory effects on lipid accumulation and thermogenic activity of four plant extracts and the synergies in their combinations using an in vitro model.
Our team conducted the imaging and image processing to quantify the lipid accumulation and UCP1 protein expression.
This work was done in collaboration with our partner DIVA Expertise, Nexira and the Institute of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Diseases (I2MC). You can find the full text here

1 feb 2022
Bioimage Informatics conference organized by Institut Pasteur

Our Ph.D. student in biomedical image processing, Clément Cazorla, participated tp the BioImage Informatics conference organized by the Institut Pasteur on December 1, 2021.
On this occasion, he presented a poster on the graphic interface he developed in Python to segment biomedical images with a light-weight convulational neural network, using very few annotations.
To read his poster entitled "An interactive deep learning segmentation software with sparse annotations", click here.

1 dec 2021
Cancer cell aggregation article published in Cancers

Imactiv-3D is proud to be a part of a new scientific article published in Cancers MDPI written with the work of our image processing expert : Renaud Morin!
The authors were able to identify HDAC inhibitors as potential regulators of cancer cell clustering thanks to a quantitative analysis of cell aggregation dynamics.
The automatic image analysis algorithm results allow to visualize the aggregates contours in red and the areas without cells in green. With this algorithm, we can obtain quantitative parameters allowing to calculate a circularity value and a normalized area to evaluate the cancer cell aggregation dynamics.
You can find the free full-text article here

20 nov 2021
International Conference on Health Innovative Solutions

IMACTIV-3D is pleased to participate to this new edition of the International Conference on Health Innovative Solutions organized by the Xidian University and LSLEAD (Life sciences leadership School).
We will be speaking on Wednesday, November 10 during the session dedicated to Innovative Biotherapies.
Free registration and more information here
Innovative biotherapies are on the rise and use biomedicines whose active ingredients are produced from living organisms and resulting from fundamental research in biotechnology. This includes antibodies, vaccines, viral vectors, stem cells and other therapeutic molecules produced from living microorganisms. Innovative biotherapies are closely linked to diagnostic and prognostic biomarker tools, as well as for therapeutic monitoring. The integration of these tools into the therapeutic arsenal allows for more efficient patient care and contributes to a better understanding of the pathophysiology of diseases. However, the basic aspects must not be forgotten and allow us to remain at the forefront of innovation in biotherapies. This webinar will therefore focus on all these facets of biotherapies, as well as future innovative projects, and will be illustrated with numerous examples of applications.

10 nov 2021
EACR conference: Goodbye Flat Biology, Next-generation Cancer Models

Our joint work for the IMLINFO INTERREG POCTEFA european project will be thoroughly represented during the European Association for Cancer Research (EACR) conference "Goodbye Flat Biology: Next-generation cancer models" this week (5 and 6 October 20221).
Our collaborator from IDIBAPS (Spain), will talk about the multi-cellular patient-derived non-Hodgkin lymphoma tumoroids as a tool to recapitulate the tumor microenvironment, to study disease biology and perform drug screening...
...while our collaborator from CRCT (France), will present a poster explaining the use of

5 oct 2021
Webinar membre AFSSI : Amylgen & Imactiv-3D

La collaboration entre Amylgen et Imactiv-3D offre un nouveau service permettant d’accéder à des données nouvelles et complémentaires dans les modèles précliniques exploités par Amylgen. Les études réalisées chez Amylgen produisent des données de comportement basées sur l’observation des animaux ainsi que des données de biochimie et d’histologie obtenues ex vivo sur les mêmes animaux.
Imactiv-3D prend la suite avec son expertise en imagerie à feuille de lumière (microscopie à fluorescence en 3D) et en traitement d’images.
Cette synergie permet, par exemple, de réaliser une analyse fine des réseaux microvasculaires dans le cerveau des souris dans les modèles de maladies neurodégénératives comme la maladie d’Alzheimer ou chez les souris âgées.
Dans le contexte d’études sur le vieillissement, il est possible de mettre en évidence les modifications qui interviennent dans la micro vascularisation de divers organes sous-tendant un dysfonctionnement de leurs fonctions. D’autres applications possibles sont envisagées.
Pour retrouver ce webinar commun, cliquez ici.
Pour plus d'informations sur les études sur la vascularisation : étude de cas ici.

5 jul 2021
Imactiv-3D at the Antibody Industrial Symposium 2021

We are pleased to attend the 9^th Antibody Industrial Symposium (AIS) this year, from 22 to 25 June.
We will be delighted to discuss with those involved in the field of immunotherapy about imaging and image processing for the quantification and characterization of their samples.
This congress is fully digital and organized by the scientific society LabEx MabImprove and the industrial organization MabDesign.
You can find the full program here

21 jun 2021
Biomarker and Therapy Days: Aging and Degeneration

On June 8, Our CEO Jean-Michel Lagarde will present our work with Ipsen Innovation on neuromuscular junctions at the Biomarker & Therapy Days.
He will talk about the quantification of junctions on whole muscle using 3D imaging and image processing, work that we have started to discuss in this technical sheet.
On the program: biomarkers of aging and degeneration in the cardiac and pulmonary systems, in sense organs and the musculoskeletal system.
This event is organized by the regional agency AD'OCC, Eurobiomed and the University of Montpellier.
You can find the full program here.

7 jun 2021
Workshop "Highlight your 3D samples"
From the 7th to the 11th June 2021, the workshop "Highlighting your 3D samples" is organized by the CRCT imaging platform in Toulouse!
On the program: practical workshops with many private and public partners to image your own samples with 3D microscopy and visualize them in virtual reality.
IMACTIV-3D will be present to help you with your 2D or 3D image analysis, whatever the sample, its size, and the microscope used.
We will be able to discuss about :

Image pre-processing (denoising, defocusing, ...)

Quantification (segmentation, classification, automation, deep learning...)

Visualization (surface and volume rendering, 3D animation...)
More informations here
7 jun 2021
European Oncology Partnering Convention Meet2Win 2021

Our CEO Jean-Michel Lagarde will be (digitally) here to meet with several oncology experts at the Meet2Win Oncolofy Partnering Convention the 6th and 7th May 2021.
This partnering event organized by MATWIN, an open-innovation platform dedicated to oncology, combines conferences, projects pitches and B2B meetings.
IMACTIV-3D always looks forward to this event for the exciting discussions on innovation in oncology. If you are curious to know what we are able to do in this area, you can visit this page of our website.

6 may 2021
Welcome to our new colleagues

It's been now 2 months since Pascale Bernes-Lasserre and Clément Cazorla joined us, so we wanted to introduce them:
Pascale comes to help us in the lab from the 3D cell culture to the sample preparation and microscopy. She is an enthousiastic addition to our team, and is always eager to learn.
Clément Cazorla is starting his PhD thesis in collaboration with the Toulouse Mathematics Institute (IMT) on deep learning approaches to automatically analyze lightsheet microscopy images. He has a unique sense of humor, and is curious about our work outside the image processing. We are thrilled to welcome them among us!

28 apr 2021
European project IMLINFO: New article published in Cancers
We are thrilled to see our work in the European project IMLINFO finally published in the journal Cancers. IMLINFO’s goal is to determine the efficacy of new immunotherapy treatments against non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma tumours associated with a 3D culture platform. It involves 8 organizations located in Spain and France.
Our research for this project focused on the follicular lymphoma, which accounts for 20-30 percent of all non-Hodgkin lymphoma cases and is still considered as incurable. We conceived a realistic 3D model of t(14;18)-positive B-NHL cell culture, that allows a more robust drug testing by 2D and 3D imaging monitoring techniques.
Imactiv-3D was involved in the 3D characterization of these models using light sheet fluorescence microscopy. This technology has been chosen for its numerous advantages:

It allows to penetrate a 3D sample in depth, quickly and in full,

It exposes a sample to up to 5000 times less energy than confocal fluorescence microscopy, minimizing photo-bleaching and photo-induced cell damage,

It results in high resolution and multichannel fluorescence images.
Imactiv-3D also specifically developed and implemented an image processing pipeline to automatically segment the samples in 3D from light sheet microscopy acquisitions. The algorithm’s output allowed to estimate various 3D morphological parameters as volume, eccentricity, sphericity, and roundness.
The article entitled “3D model characterization by 2D and 3D imaging in t(14;18)-Positive B-NHL: Perspectives for in vitro drug screens in follicular lymphoma” is available here.
24 mar 2021
Conference paper with IPSEN for Toxins 2021

As part of our collaboration, IPSEN Innovation and Imactiv-3D published a conference paper "3D reconstruction and analysis of neuromuscular junction (NMJ) distribution in whole skeletal muscles in the rat using light-sheet microscopy" in Toxicon for the Toxins virtual conferences 2021.
The goal of this work was to get qualitative and quantitative data on the NMJ phenotype to study the Botulinum neurotoxins diffusion after intramuscular administration. An automated image processing methodology, including 3D image denoising and segmentation, was developed to count NMJ.
We used light sheet microscopy to image 5 types of rat muscles and investigate the distribution of NMJ.
You can find the full article here, and read more about this work on our application note "3D ex vivo imaging and characterization of neuromuscular junctions" here.

16 mar 2021
Journée thématique sur les innovations en imagerie cutanée

Imactiv-3D a participé à la 14^ème Journée Thématique sur l’Imagerie Cutanée du 11 mars 2021 organisée par Cosmet’In Lyon et la SF2IC (Société Francophone d’Ingénierie et d’Imagerie Cutanée).
Jean-Michel Lagarde y a présenté une e-conférence sur l'utilisation de différentes modalités d'imagerie pour mesurer la taille des adipocytes sur plusieurs modèles biologiques en s'appuyant sur les travaux effectués avec notre partenaire D.I.V.A. Expertise.
Vous pouvez retrouver le programme de cette journée ici.
Pour en savoir plus sur notre travail pour la dermo-cosmétique, nos fiches d'application sont disponibles ici.

11 mar 2021
CROI 2021: Joint work with the Pasteur Institute on HIV-1

We are proud to see our joint work on HIV-1 with Pasteur Institute being presented by the talented Dr Francesca Di Nunzio during the CROI (Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections) happening in March 6-10 2021.
To uncover the HIV-1 DNA fate in the nuclear landscape, they directly tracked the viral DNA and viral RNA by coupling NeoVirTech's HIV-1 ANCHOR^TM technology with RNA FISH or MCP-MS2 RNA-tagging bacterial system.
The computational imaging analysis developed by Imactiv-3D revealed that proviral forms are early located in proximity of the nuclear periphery of mitotic and non-mitotic cells.
This challenging analysis includes localization of viral DNA, viral RNA and various nuclear bodies together with 3D distance estimation on a submicron scale inside nuclei.
Our image processing expert, Renaud Morin, developed a multichannel segmentation algorithm that enables the automatic, precise and robust identification of all these components in 3D.
Based on state-of-the-art image processing methods, this quantification tool paves the way towards refined colocalization study and thus better understanding of HIV mechanisms.
The Pasteur Institute team was able to show that HIV-1 infection restructures nuclear membrane-less organelles (HIV-1 MLOs), enriched in both viral proteins and speckle factors. Integrase proteins are retained in HIV-1 MLOs, while the late retrotranscribed DNA was excluded from them, indicating that those structures are not proviral sites, but orchestrate viral events prior to the integration step. In fact, they show that HIV-1 MLOs are sites of nuclear RT.

6 mar 2021
Scientific paper: Mitotic arrest effect on clustering of tumor cells

Imactiv-3D was involved in this newly published article investigating the effect of mitotic arrest in the clustering of tumor cells. Our image processing expert, Renaud Morin developed a segmentation algorithm to quantify compaction and other morphology parameters over time. The cluster area was hence monitored and measured at each time point by automated image segmentation with a custom-designed MATLAB routine. This work has been published in Cell Division Journal, in collaboration with the ITAV CNRS labs in Toulouse (France). To read the full article: click here

2 feb 2021
Partnership with ThermoFisher scientific

Alzheimer's is the most common cause of dementia, a general term for memory loss and other cognitive disabilities serious enough to interfere with daily life. Alzheimer's has no current cure, but treatments for symptoms are available and research continues to find better ways to treat the disease, delay its onset, and prevent it from developing.
We worked closely with Amylgen, a French Preclinical CRO, to better understand Alzheimer’s and its impact on the brain micro-vascular network. Imactiv-3D created a movie with Amira Software (from Thermo Fisher Scientific) from light sheet microscopy acquisitions and was able to visualize the whole vascular network of a mouse brain in 3D, allowing to study its anatomy in space. The animation scenario could then be applied identically on different conditions in order to make a first reliable visual comparison of global vascular architecture.
In addition to this advanced visual analysis, Imactiv-3D is able to perform 3D quantification studies, confirming the decrease in vascular network density, and modified distribution of vessels size in diseased brains’ cortex.
To learn more about our work on the brain vascular network, you can find our case study here

11 jan 2021
I4ID Congress: Viral infection, replication, propagation and image processing in 2D and 3D

The I4ID (Immunotherapies & Innovations for Infectious Diseases) Congress 2020 will address the current COVID-19 pandemics as well as other infectious diseases. The Scientific Committee has put together a programme focusing on detection, diagnosis, clinical trials, immunotherapies and innovative therapeutic approaches to prevent and tackle infectious diseases.
Franck Gallardo, NeoVirTech's CEO and Jean-Michel Lagarde, Imactiv-3D's CEO, will give a talk during the breakthrough innovation session dedicated to “New approaches to fight infectious diseases" on December 9th, 2020.
The oral presentation entitled “Combination between ANCHORTM tagged viruses and state of the art image acquisition and analysis platforms to investigate virus infection, replication and propagation in living 2D or 3D cell models” will unveil the results obtained by combining ANCHORTM labeling technology with powerful image processing solutions on 2D and 3D models.
Imactiv-3D and NeoVirTech teams will be pleased to meet you during this event and discuss on how our joint service could foster the preclinical development of your vaccines or immunotherapies.

9 dec 2020
Scientific paper on oncolytic viruses in Biomedicines

Our last article in collaboration with NeoVirTech and Transgene has been published in Biomedicines! Franck Gallardo explained "This is the first time that we generate an ANCHOR tagged oncolytic virus that allows rapid investigation of oncolytic potential and discovery of oncolytic modulators."
We were involved in the intracellular quantification of a VACV ANCHOR accumulation, analysis of replication centers (clusters and viral copies number) in two areas (replications centers and cytoplasm).
You can read the entire paper here (DOI:https://doi.org/10.3390/biomedicines8120543)

4 dec 2020
WEBINAR Image processing in 2D and 3D for viral infection and propagation
If you miss on December 2nd, the first joint webinar organized by NeoVirTech and Imactiv-3D about 2D and 3D image processing for virology. "From 2D to 3D quantification: How does image processing enable to decipher viral infection and propagation?"
You can watch the recorded version of the webinar here
Our speakers Franck Gallardo, CEO of NeoVirTech and virology specialist, Renaud Morin, image processing expert at Imactiv-3D, and Jean-Michel Lagarde, CEO of Imactiv-3D will answer those questions:

How to tag the viral genome in real time?

How to image viral replication?

How to extract quantitative data?

How to transpose 2D techniques to live 2D and 3D?

The presentation is illustrated with case studies.
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions regarding the services we can offer as part of our strategic alliance with NeoVirTech in virology, and don't hesitate to follow us on our LinkedIn page to stay tuned about future events and webianrs!
2 dec 2020
Imactiv-3D at the 8th Antibody Industrial Symposium

Our imaging and biology specialist Aurélie Gomes presented our work: A 3D LSFM-based quantitative characterization of antibody penetration in whole tissues during the virtual 8th edition of the Antibody Industrial Symposium the 23rd and 24th of November.
This event gathered academics, big industrials, start-ups and SMEs willing to share and discuss their work on this year’s theme « Multispecific Abs, Ab-like molecules and adoptive cell therapy for fighting diseases ». If you miss this talk or want to rewatch it, you can find it here

23 nov 2020
ICIS 2020: Conference on innovative solutions for Cancer, Aging and Genetic diseases

Our CEO, Jean-Michel Lagarde was one of the speaker for the International Conference on Innovation Solutions (ICIS) organized by International Bio Business Services.
If you miss this remote conference, and want to hear our presentation of "3D imaging quantification of 3D biological models" you can find the recording here.

28 oct 2020
Partnership with Carl Zeiss SAS to offer innovative integrative solution
Imactiv-3D, the innovative CRO that helps preclinical studies get more predictive thanks to its expertise in biology, 3D imaging and image processing, announced that it has entered into a strategic partnership with the 3D imaging and microscopy leader Zeiss. This partnership has been signed simultaneously with the acquisition and installation of a state-of-the-art light sheet microscope in Imactiv-3D’s laboratories.
As the 3D microscopy tends to become a technique that is more and more democratized and accessible, it remains complex and produces a large volume of data, often difficult to process for the users. That is why the alliance between the leader in microscopy and experienced users and image processing engineers is particularly interesting. It allows this technology to be used to its fullest potential and to improve the robustness of the results obtained.
The purpose of this partnership is to provide an integrative and innovative solution to clients needing optimum image acquisition and processing in 3D.
While Zeiss brings its excellence in 3D microscopy and imaging techniques, Imactiv-3D will use its expertise in sample processing for imaging (labelling, optical clearing, conditioning), in 3D imaging (mainly light sheet) and 3D image processing. That alliance thus enables the full potential of the state-of-the-art imaging technology to be exploited and put to best use in preclinical research.
“This partnership is an opportunity for us to be able to offer a complete solution and expertise on the light sheet to our future users, from sample preparation, to 3D analysis, including clearing methods, acquisition and 3D visualization,” said Fabrice Schmitt, Head of Sales for Carl Zeiss SAS.
Jean-Michel Lagarde, founder and CEO of Imactiv-3D, is excited about this unique partnership: “This partnership between the company Carl Zeiss SAS and Imactiv-3D is a great opportunity for the development of our company. It is a recognition of the work accomplished by the team to become experts in light sheet microscopy, in sample preparation and image processing specific to this imaging modality.”
Contact information:
About sample handling, imaging and image analysis: Jean-Michel Lagarde, IMACTIV-3D: jean.michel.lagarde[at]imactiv3d.com

About microscopy: Fabrice Schmitt, Carl Zeiss SAS: fabrice.schmitt[at]zeiss.com

About light sheet microscopy: Emmanuel Elias, Carl Zeiss SAS: emmanuel.elias[at]zeiss.com
21 oct 2020
Imactiv-3D officially joins the Centre Pierre Potier business incubator

After more than 4 years spent in the Centre Pierre Potier hosted by the ITAV CNRS, Imactiv-3D officially joins the business incubator in the same building.
The 5,000m² business incubator is dedicated to the establishment of start-up oriented towards biotechnologies and is located in the campus “Santé du futur” next to the Oncopole in Toulouse (France).

7 jul 2020
Strategic alliance between Imactiv-3D and NeoVirTech
We have the pleasure to announce a new strategic alliance between Imactiv-3D and NeoVirTech.
NeoVirTech has developed a breakthrough technology to directly visualize and quantify in real time virus/viral vector infection and replication in living cells, from high resolution to high content imaging and screening techniques. The company has been elected in the Top10 drug discovery company in Europe in 2019 (PharmaTechOutlook).
This alliance aims to develop a unique platform with both expertise and innovative tools to move virology projects forward with robust data. Our combined clients will not have to do any compromise on scientific excellence.
NeoVirTech will bring its knowledge and know-how in virology, high content screening imaging and its ANCHOR technology to label viruses in living cells, while Imactiv-3D will bring its expertise in non-invasive 3D imaging (light sheet fluorescence microscopy), image processing and 3D cell culture. Over the past years, we have worked together on several projects, leading to scientific papers.
NeoVirTech and Imactiv-3D are now able to perform:

Preclinical evaluation of compounds efficacy on innovative 3D models by monitoring viral infection and replication using state-of-the-art live imaging techniques. A collection of around 30 viruses is available.

3D quantification and visualization of infection (spheroids, organoids, tissues, organs…) combined with staining of a marker of interest. 3D reconstruction for marketing and communication purposes.

“We are delighted to strengthen our partnership with Imactiv-3D. Their expertise and knowledge in the generation of 3D models for imaging and screening application, combined with our expertise in the visualization of infection and replication using autofluorescent viruses will provide unprecedented models for the understanding of virus propagation in complex environments. This new model will have a deep impact in antiviral screening and oncolytic virotherapies validation for example.” Franck Gallardo, Ph.D CEO NeoVirTech SAS
“We are very proud to offer our respective customers the best of both our companies. The stability of Neovirtech's Anchor fluorescent marking technology will allow us to make the most of our expertise in 3D model biology, 3D imaging and image processing. This strategic alliance is an end-to-end solution for all needs in understanding and evaluating the efficacy of antiviral treatments.” Jean-Michel Lagarde, CEO Imactiv-3D
2 jul 2020
WEBINAR Microscopie 3D de la cellule à l'organe : Comment visualiser et quantifier ?

Rendez-vous le 30 juin à 15h, avec notre CEO Jean-Michel Lagarde qui animera un webinar sur la « Microscopie 3D de la cellule à l’organe : Comment visualiser et quantifier ? »
Nous répondrons aux questions suivantes :
- Pourquoi imager en 3D ?
- Comment imager en 3D ?
- Comment exploiter les images obtenues en 3D ?
La présentation sera enrichie d’études de cas.
N’hésitez pas à partager cet événement à vos contacts susceptibles d’être intéressés !
Si vous avez raté ce webinar ou que vous voulez le re-voir, il reste disponible ici

30 jun 2020
Workshop “Mise en lumière des échantillons 3D”

IMACTIV-3D participe au 1^er workshop sur la « Mise en lumière des échantillons 3D » organisé par le CRCT (Centre de Recherche de Cancérologie de Toulouse) à la rentrée prochaine du 14 au 18 septembre 2020.
Notre PDG, Jean-Michel Lagarde, est intervenu pendant ce webinar de préparation, pour présenter l’activité de service en traitement d’image qu’Imactiv-3D mettra à disposition pour les participants.
Vous pouvez retrouver cette présentation ainsi que l’ensemble des interventions des partenaires (CELLINK, IRIT, Miltenyi Biotec, PerkinElmer, ZEISS Microscopy) ici

29 apr 2020
Ph.D. Defense of Aurélie Gomes

On Tuesday, december 17, 2019, Aurélie Gomes successfully defended her thesis entitled "Evaluation of proliferation in tumor spheroids".
Her work, under a CIFRE agreement, is the result of 3 years of intense collaboration between the "Innovation for the study of 3D proliferation - IP3D" team at ITAV - Institut des Technologies Avancées en sciences du Vivant and IMACTIV-3D.
She was particularly interested in the evaluation of the proliferation in the 3D model of tumor spheroids and its regulation, in particular by oxygen. She has implemented experimental approaches to in toto antibody labelling, light sheet imaging and image analysis.
Her work has led to the development of methods and tools of interest in the study of cancer biology and response in anti-tumor pharmacology. Their application shows the importance of physioxia for the study of proliferation and the evaluation of drug response.
We are very happy that Aurélie Gomes continues the adventure with us. She will join IMACTIV-3D as a young doctor in January 2020 to share her expertise with our customers as R&D project manager in biology and imaging.

17 dec 2019
Start of APELYM 3D project

Apelym 3D is a new joint project between IMACTIV-3D and INSERM U1048 aiming to analyze the restoration of lymphatic function and adipose tissue by 3D imaging in context of lymphedema. Imactiv-3D will work to implement innovative tools for 3D imaging specific of the lymphatic network in adipose tissue and facilitate the characterization of the effectiveness of therapeutic targets in preclinical models of lymphedema.
Alongside Imactiv-3D, two teams of INSERM U1048 are involved Florence Tatin (Team 13), coordinator of the project who works on the molecular regulation of lymphangiogenic factors and Philippe Valet (Team 3) who will bring its expertise on adipokines and adipocytes metabolism. While lymphatic capillaries have been well explored in several tissues, less is known about the deeper collecting lymphatic vessels.
Thanks to our complementary expertise, we will be able to explore this lymphatic network on adipose tissues to understand its involvement in lymphedema. Promising targets would be tested as potential actors of the lymphatic network regeneration. This collaborative project is supported by European Fund and Region Occitanie.

1 nov 2019
Imactiv-3D at Termis workshop on 3D Bioprinting for Cancer

The TERMIS-EU workshop is an event organized by INSERM Nantes and the University of Nantes on the 26th and 27th of August 2019 in Nantes (France).
The theme for the workshop is “3D bioprinting in cancer research”. This workshop is intended for medical students, doctors and researchers on oncology. Different themes will be addressed, including “3D bioprinting of tumor models, 3D models for cancer, 3D bioprinting and cancer microenvironment” and “3D bioprinting for tissue reconstruction”. Over the two days, practical workshops on 3D modeling and bioprinting are organized.
Imactiv-3D’s CEO, Jean-Michel Lagarde will make a pitch on Exploration and 3D quantification by light sheet imaging and image processing.
If you are interested in joining us for this workshop, you can register here: www.workshop-termis.eu

26 aug 2019
IMACTIV-3D at the AFSSI connexions in Lyon

Meet Imactiv-3D at the 7th edition annual meeting of preclinical research AFSSI Connexions on July 2-3, 2019 in Lyon (France).
Our CEO, Jean-Michel Lagarde, will be there to present Imactiv-3D’s solutions to support your preclinical research program with innovative imaging and image processing tools. We will be pleased to discuss about your projects and potential collaboration opportunities. Please feel free to contact us to schedule a meeting!
AFSSI Connexions will gather around 300 ecosystem stakeholders during two busy and productive days. Benefit from multiple opportunities to find the know-how, skills, and innovations that you need!
Tuesday July 2: Thematic round table about: Business development strategies, Marketplace, International, Research Tax Credit, Growth and Competitiveness.
Wednesday, July 3: Business convention day and business oriented presentations. Develop your business and relationships with your colleagues, centers of excellence, platforms and sponsors.

2 jul 2019
AIS Tours : 7th Antibody Industrial Symposium
Imactiv-3D will attend the 7^th edition of the Antibody Industrial Symposium (AIS), organized by MabDesign and LabEx MabImprove on June 24-25 2019 in Tours (France). This event is dedicated to Harnessing the Immune System with Therapeutic Antibodies.
During this event, there will be keynote lectures, industrial talks from big pharmaceutical companies and pitch talks of new creative projects, as well as networking and business partnering time.
The topics covered during the congress are:

Immunomodulation via cell membrane antigens

Harnessing the immune system with immunomodulatory therapeutic antibodies

Pitch Session: Immunomodulation with mAbs: new strategies and technologies

Immunomodulation via FC-FcgrammaR interaction

Immunomodulation via soluble antigens
Jean-Michel Lagarde, our CEO, will represent Imactiv-3D, do not hesitate to get in touch to organize a face to face meeting!
24 jun 2019
Imactiv-3D at Meet2Win Oncology Partnering Convention

Meet Imactiv-3D at the Oncology Partnering Convention Meet2Win organized on May 21 and 22, 2019 in Bordeaux (France).
MATWIN organizes the 5th edition of this European Partnering Convention dedicated to open innovation, collaborative research and technology transfer.
MEET2WIN is a business convention combining flash project presentations, conferences, one-to-one business meetings as well as exhibition area.
Jean-Michel Lagarde, our CEO, will be there to discuss about the solutions that Imactiv-3D can offer to oncology research stakeholders.

21 may 2019
IMALC Project Results

The IMALC project comes to an end! This research project was aiming to treat follicular lymphomas with anti-CD20 antibodies, and to develop quantitative imaging tools to evaluate their efficacy by light sheet microscopy.
To conclude, this transversal and interdisciplinary research project made it possible to:
- Characterize biologically relevant study models
- Model lightsheet imaging clinical observations, and maybe in the longer run, to explain why monoclonal antibodies treatments are less effective in patients with high-tumor burden follicular lymphomas or with an increased immune checkpoint expression.
This project is therefore part of a global research effort to better understand lymphomatous pathology and the mechanisms involved in therapeutic treatments in order to identify targets and anticipate resistance mechanisms. This represents a major challenge for a pathology that is currently considered incurable.
Imactiv-3D team has developed a quantitative analysis of the distribution and diffusion of MAb (Monoclonal antibody) on these 3D models of follicular lymphomas (MALC) based on
1) light sheet microscopy imaging of MALC after treatment with therapeutic ACMs and
2) the development of a custom methodology for efficient and automated image processing and analysis to quantitatively characterize the spatiotemporal biodistribution of MAbs within MALC.
This project was based on the skills and expertise found in team N°9 of the CRCT (Toulouse Cancer Research Centre), on the imaging platform of the ITAV (Institut des Technologies Avancées du Vivant) and in the company IMACTIV3D.

31 dec 2018
Joint publication with INSERM in OncoImmunology

Imactiv-3D is very pleased to announce the publication of a new scientific article in the OncoImmunology Journal on follicular lymphoma, resulting from a collaboration with the Unit UMR1037 of the INSERM in Toulouse (France).
The article, entitled “Boosting γδ T cell-mediated antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity by PD-1 blockade in follicular lymphoma” is already available (DOI: 10.1080/2162402X.2018.1554175). This article presents data providing a rational treatment for follicular lymphoma by PD-1 blockade aimed at boosting γδ T cell anti-tumor functions in this pathology.
Imactiv-3D took charge of the image processing of 3D co-cultured MALC for characterization and quantification of the penetration of γδ T cells and monoclonal antibody (GA101).

17 dec 2018
Scientific publication in virology

Imactiv-3D is pleased to announce the publication of a new scientific article entitled “In vivo labelling of adenovirus DNA identifies chromatin anchoring and biphasic genome replication” in the Journal of Virology (DOI: 10.1128/JVI.00795-18) available here.
This study has been conducted in collaboration with the CNRS UMR5234 lab in Bordeaux (France) and with NeoVirTech. It shows that the real-time genome imaging system developed revealed hitherto uncharacterized features of adenoviral genomes in vivo. This system is capable of identifying new spatiotemporal aspects of the adenovirus life cycle and is potentially transferable to other viral systems with a double-stranded DNA phase.
Imactiv-3D team was involved in the characterization of viral replication centers in human cells and the image processing (denoising and deconvolution).

29 aug 2018
Imactiv-3D to attend the AFSSI Connexions
Imactiv-3D will attend the 6th edition of the AFSSI Connexions, an annual meeting for preclinical research, on July 2-3 2018 in Marseille (France).
Come and meet Jean-Michel Lagarde, our CEO, to enjoy the 2 days of congress, business convention, exposition and presentations organized by the first French R&D center in life sciences!
The AFSSI Connexions program is:

2nd of July: Panel discussions on the following themes: International, Role of competitiveness clusters, logistic, and customer cooperation

3rd of July: Business convention day, workshop and presentations: Commercial and partnership relations with your peers, clusters, platform etc
2 jul 2018
Imactiv-3D Sponsor of the 2nd Workshop BioFabrication & Cancer

The « Canceropole Grand Sud-Ouest » is organizing the 2nd edition of the « Biofabrication & Cancer » workshop on 27 and 28 June 2018 in Bordeaux. This edition will be an opportunity to address a wide scientific audience via 6 sessions on a variety of topics and a strong involvement of industrialists in the bio-impression, modelling and cell culture field (pitchs and demonstrations).
Imactiv-3D is a sponsor of this event that will focus on 3D models for clinical practice the first day, and on bio-inks and technologies and 3D models for cancer the second day. Our CEO, Jean-Michel Lagarde will present a pitch explaining the solutions that Imactiv-3D can offer.

27 jun 2018
Meet2Win 2018

Meet Imactiv-3D at the 4th edition of the Oncology Business Convention Meet2Win organized by MATWIN in Bordeaux (France) on May 17th and 18th 2018.
MATWIN is a French platform supporting innovation in Oncology, subsidiary of Unicancer group (gathering the French Comprehensive Cancer Centers). Meet2Win is a partnering convention fully dedicated to open innovation in Oncology.
This event reunites more than 300 european representatives involved in oncology innovation (pharma, biotechs, startups, investors, researchers, cliniciants, TTOs etc). Jean-Michel Lagarde, our CEO, will be there to talk about our offer for oncology innovation.

17 may 2018
IMLINFO (EFA281/16): Start of the European project

IMLINFO is a cross-border network of personalized immunotherapies against non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) involving 8 organizations located in Spain and France. Its main objective is to determine the efficacy of new immunotherapy treatments by creating a repository of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma (NHL) tumours associated with a three-dimensional (3D) culture platform.
POCTEFA 2014-2020 is the acronym for the Interreg V-A Spain-France-Andorra Programme. It is a European cross-border cooperation programme created to promote the sustainable development of the border territories of the three countries.
This programme is financed by the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund).

1 jan 2018
Imactiv-3D at the SF2IC Seminar
Imactiv-3D will attend the 11th edition of the SF2IC Congress organized by the francophone society of engineering and skin imaging (SFIIC) in Marrakech (Morocco) the 22nd and 23th October 2017.
The theme of this event is the bioengineering and objectification of cosmetic effectiveness and it will be addressed during several sessions:

1^stday : 2 sessions about pollution and skin, and bio-engineering of cosmetic effectiveness

2^ndday : 3 sessions about mechanical tension, tissue engineering, and imaging.

Our CEO Jean-Michel Lagarde, will intervene during the 4th session on the 24th October about tissue engineering. He will speak about the imaging of 3D models of skin structures, from adipocyte to reconstructed skin.
23 oct 2017
Imactiv-3D at the INEXO Symposium

Our team will be present at the InExO Symposium in Montpellier on 7 July 2017. This event gathers scientists interested in alternative models in vitro, ex ovo and organisms for pathology and ageing research fields.
The development of these new models is a real challenge to respond to societal concerns through an ethical approach aimed at reducing, optimising and replacing (3Rs: reduce, refine, replace) the use of animals for scientific purposes.
Our CEO, Jean-Michel Lagarde and our Ph.D. student Aurélie Gomes are going to present a poster on a new image analysis-based approach to evaluate cytoxicity on 3D models.
Our procedure using quantitative image analysis allows the evaluation and quantification of anticancer drugs cytotoxic activity on 3D multicellular models, and can be applied to multi-parametric analysis to address customers’ specific needs.

7 jul 2017
Start of IMALC Project on Follicular Lymphomas

The project aims to develop quantitative imaging tools for the evaluation of treatment efficacy of follicular lymphomas using light sheet microscopy. To identify a treatment and evaluate it as objectively as possible requires methods capable of extracting, quantifying and processing information relating to numerous markers. Coupling light sheet microscopy with quantitative image analysis methods directly addresses this need.
This project is co-financed by the ERDF and the Occitanie Region. Imactiv-3D works with two labs: ITAV (CNRS USR3505) and CRCT (INSERM U1037).
The IMALC project aims to carry out an analysis of quantitative distribution and diffusion of monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) on 3D models of lymphomas, based on light sheet microscopy imaging of MALC after treatment with therapeutic monoclonal antibodies and the development of a custom high-performance methodology, automated image processing and analysis to characterize quantitatively the spatiotemporal biodistribution of mAbs within MALCs.
Image: Visualization of a MALC using light sheet microscopy 24h-post treatment with GA101. The color gradient (from blue to white) shows the localization of the GA101 intensity.

1 jan 2017
Imactiv-3D first scientific publication

Imactiv-3D is very proud to announce its first scientific publication in the Oncology Letters!
This scientific article, entitled "Evaluation by quantitative image analysis of anticancer drug activity on multicellular spheroids grown in 3D matrix" is available here (DOI: 10.3892/ol.2016.5221).
Our team developed a new procedure to visualize, analyze and quantify the pharmacological activity of drugs on 3D multicellular spheres grown in a physiological matrix.
The aim of this study was to propose a robust and efficient imaging and analysis pipeline to assess with quantitative parameters the efficacy of a particular cytotoxic drug. HCT116 colorectal adenocarcinoma tumor cell multispheres were observed with structured illumination 3D microscopy and the images obtained were processed with custom analysis tools.
We were thus capable of automatically detecting spheres in a large volume of matrix in 96-well plates. This procedure was used to evaluate drug efficacy in HCT116 spheroids treated with different concentrations of topotecan, a DNA topoisomerase inhibitor. This work demonstrates that quantitative image analysis is an effective mean to evaluate and quantify the cytostatic and cytotoxic activities of anticancer drugs on 3D multicellular models grown in a physiological matrix.

12 dec 2016
Establishment of the company

Hosting of the company within the CNRS in Toulouse (National Centre for Scientific Research).

13 nov 2015