PASREL-imagerie

Medical imaging offers an invaluable reading grid on living organisms for biomedical research, the development of therapeutic innovations and the practice of medicine. As a source of innovation, medical imaging will play an important role in the development of predictive and personalized medicine, thus integrating into most multidisciplinary research programs.

PASREL-Imagerie’s ambition is to structure and federate research and business stakeholders in the Ile-de-France drug and medical imaging sectors around a cutting-edge medical imaging platform that can be accessed by all.

The goals of PASREL-Imagerie are twofold:

1. The availability of an unmatched medical imaging technology platform for all stakeholders in the sector. They have access, via a single point of contact, to state-of-the-art equipment and associated expertise. Collaboration offers are clearly scaled, ranging from simple exploratory services to collaboration contracts.
2. Increasing and strengthening the connections between the stakeholders through a governance involving all parties and the implementation of training and animation.

Implementation of PASREL-Imagerie is subsidised by the Ile-de-France Region.

PASREL-Imagerie plays a role throughout the value chain of innovative drugs in order to accelerate and derisk their market launch:

• By developing a companion imaging biomarker specific to the target of interest, PASREL-Imagerie enables in vivo target visualization.
• Used in animal models, this companion imaging biomarker makes it possible to compare the affinity for the target of drug candidates and, thus, to finance more complete and more expensive preclinical studies only for the most promising of them.
• PASREL-Imagerie can also radiolabel the drug candidate and measure its biodistribution and pharmacokinetics in a human subject by PET imaging. Because the drug candidate is injected as a tracer, these studies are low risk and have a light regulatory approval file. This "phase 0" makes it possible to derisk phase 1 by eliminating drugs with inadequate bio-distribution or pharmacokinetics.
• In phase 1, the use of the companion imaging biomarker allows to measure the binding of the drug candidate on its target (“target engagement”).
• Studies carried out with PASREL-Imagerie enrich the application for marketing authorization and consolidate it.
• Further downstream, PASREL-Imagerie can also develop companion radiopharmaceuticals for pre-treatment assessment in the context of personalized targeted therapies.

Contact us at pasrel@cea.fr so that we can identify with you how PASREL-Imagerie can assist you.

PASREL-Imagerie supports imaging manufacturers by:

• Sharing its expertise in instrumentation to propose technological innovations;
• Allowing the testing of prototypes in preclinical (small and large animals) or clinical settings;
• Consolidating the CE mark application file with preclinical or clinical tests and/or by connecting you with other stakeholders in the field (imaging experts, clinicians, etc.);
• Participating in the training to handle the medical device to prepare its market launch;
• Participating in the dissemination of the medical device, either by creating specific training on its use, or by giving it visibility through events.

Contact us at pasrel@cea.fr so that we can identify with you how PASREL-Imagerie can assist you.

Thanks to its governance, which includes a Sector Committee made up of 50% representatives from the industrial sector, as well as representatives of all stakeholders (researchers, clinicians, teachers, etc.), PASREL-Imagerie encourages and facilitates dialogue to strengthen the coherence of the products and services that are developed and to optimize the R&D phases.

The Sector Committee:

• is in charge of identifying the needs of the sector in terms of technologies, equipment and skills to speed up their access to the market;
• takes part in the analysis of PASREL-Imagerie's strategic orientations with regard to the sector and their annual re-evaluation;
• makes investment recommendations and recommendations regarding the most relevant certifications and accreditations to be undertaken by the  platform.

Thanks to training sessions (case studies, focus on a particular technology, etc.) and events (science days, open houses, workshops, etc.) designed in collaboration with manufacturers, PASREL-Imagerie brings together all the stakeholders around hot scientific topics, thus, fostering their increased  expertise.

PASREL-Imagerie grants access to the technical platforms of four CEA research centers that are located in the Paris-Saclay perimeter:

• IDMIT, a research center dedicated to infectious disease models for the development of innovative therapies (multimodal imaging, animal models etc.)
• MIRCen, a research center in molecular imaging, dedicated to neurodegenerative diseases and ophthalmic pathologies (multimodal imaging, specific animal models tc.)
• NeuroSpin, a brain neuroimaging center (Ultra high field MRI  platform);
• SHFJ, a hospital service (multimodal imaging platform, radiochemistry, etc.) and its joint research unit BioMaps

PASREL-Imagerie thus brings together 33 technical platforms and 10 laboratories or joint research units that have been collaborating on ambitious projects for many years and have now reached the necessary maturity to open up more widely to industrial partners.