Hybrigenics, Institut Curie Awarded 2.4 Million Euro by French Government

NEW YORK, March 13 - Hybrigenics and the Institut Curie have been awarded 2.4 million euros, ($2.6 million), from the French government for their joint proteomics research, the company said today.

The financing, which will span three years, includes 1.4 million euros ($1.5 million) that Hybrigenics will receive as payment for supplying its yeast two hybrid protein-protein interaction technology to its collaboration with the Institut Curie. The institute will receive 1 million euros (about $1.1 million), half of which will pay for nine postdoctoral grants, and the other half of which will go toward the operating expenses of the laboratory that the institute jointly operates with Hybrigenics in Paris.

Hybrigenics has been collaborating with the Institut Curie for the past 18 months, and has thus far produced numerous protein interaction maps for analysis by Institut researchers, said Donny Strosberg, Hybrigenics' president and CEO. These researchers have used the map to select certain therapeutic protein targets for further validation.

In this newly-funded stage of the collaboration, the Institut Curie researchers are using protein interaction maps to examine biological pathways in cancer, using human cancer cells and Drosophila cells. The team, led by Jacques Camonis, is working with scientists from the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (INSERM) and National Council of Scientific Research.