Marine SEFFALS

The company Excilone is a company which has 3 types of activity. A service activity (histology, cell imaging, extractions, etc.) but also the sale of systems and solutions and part of R&D. Excilone works with the major players in the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industry who order histology services from Excilone; these services are then mainly provided through the H2P2 core facility.

The H2P2 core facility is led by Alain Fautrel, research engineer at INSERM.
H2P2 offers training and services in histology, that is to say all that concerns the treatment of biological tissues, fixation, until the detection of specific markers (proteins, RNA) on tissues and their observation under a microscope or after scanning on the slide scanner. In addition, the H2P2 core facility offers state-of-the-art technologies such as laser capture microdissection and RAMAN micro-spectroscopy.

The equipment park is important. We can really do everything from the beginning to the end in the "Histology" process with state-of-the-art PLCs that guarantee high reliability and reproducibility of analyzes. There are very few equivalents in France.

The H2P2 core facility is also ISO9001 certified, a guarantee of reliability and high quality in the commercial relationship of Excilone with its private customers.

The quality of the work of the core facility is recognized claims of benefits from all over France. The diversity of equipment allows a wide range of research services in various fields such as health, agronomy, cosmetology or agribusiness.

The team of 6 people works in perfect harmony and mutual assistance, sharing knowledge and skills with the research teams that solicit them. Many technicians and students are trained in the use of equipment and each new project is well received, with the aim of helping to advance research topics. Research teams recognize the contribution of the core facility to their work, either thanking one or more team members for their publications, or linking them as authors to their publications. In this context, Marine is fully integrated into this team and participates in the technical evolution of the core facility according to the demands of its customers.

Excilone discovered on the H2P2 core facility state-of-the-art equipment and specialist know-how requiring dedicated premises and state-of-the-art equipment with a substantial purchase and operating cost. The partnership between the H2P2 core facility and Excilone provides access to a number of perfectly mastered histology techniques, enabling a maximum number of requests from Excilone customers to be met. In addition, the H2P2 structure allows Excilone to consider R&D projects around histology. In addition, the H2P2 core facility by its activity did not use 100% of the potential of its equipment. The company Excilone, by hiring a staff of the core facility on CDI and by carrying out the services of its customers brought to the core facility an increase in its turnover.

For H2P2, there is an optimization of the use of equipment with the provision of services for private companies. External demands combine perfectly with academic needs to make the operation, depreciation and equipment know-how profitable. For example on an immunohistochemistry equipment, useful for locating proteins of interest on tissues, instead of performing a "run" with only 10 blades the device can be used using all of its possibilities ie 30 blades . In addition a financial gain obtained with the services for Excilone helps us to finance the maintenance contracts and the purchases of small equipments without impacting on the availability of the personnel of the core facility and the availability of the equipments.

A service estimate is made according to the time of use of the equipment of the core facility and the reagents necessary for the realization of the project.

Projects range from 1 week to 6 month. The benefits that we achieve the most are immunohistochemistry benefits and on average the project lasts one month.

The use of the equipment is also possible for the scientific teams of the public or private sector after training of the users by the staff of H2P2.

The services for private companies are set according to the quotations requested, contrary to the academic projects, which most often evolve during the progress of our services and can thus last several months.

With respect to intellectual property, the H2P2 core facility respects the confidentiality of the results data. H2P2 does not know at all what is done with data processing, of course. As far as the method, the processes and the protocols are concerned, strictly speaking there is no strict ownership. We are rather in a situation of permanent enrichment of skills by experience. At the discretion of the projects, H2P2 completes its know-how which will be as much advice for future projects.

In addition, some Excilone projects allow the development of new techniques or technologies from which the entire scientific community can benefit. This is the case of an “RNA Scope” in situ hybridization project.

These transfers are framed in the SATT contracts between Excilone and H2P2.

The network is very interesting to exchange between core facilities with the high point that is the event Gen2Bio every year.

Excilone can thus discover a potential of accessible services and communicate with its customers and according to their needs. The company Excilone mainly uses the core facility H2P2, but being in Biogenouest network can allow an opening on other core facilities and on a wide offer which could interest the private customers of Excilone (imagery of the small animal for example ...). Thus, new partnership contracts could be set up with other core facilities of Biogenouest network.