> Nicolas Guyot, CEO

Nicolas GUYOT, CEO, is a graduate from Paris VII and Paris XI University. He completed a Master2 in molecular endocrinology in 1991 and joined Abbott diagnostic in 1992 where he gained great expertise in marketing and project management. Graduated from MBA (Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers) he is in charge for general and financial management at Fluigent.

Fluigent is a spin-off company of the Curie Institute. Can you tell us how it all started?

Fluigent is born from the alliance between genetic tests research and a new technology, the Microfluidics, which elaborate devices capable to transport rapidly substances in microchannels . Fluigent is a Curie Institute spin-off, created in November 2005 by Jean-Louis Viovy, Director of the MMBM Research laboratory and Dominique Stoppa-Lyonnet, Onco-Genetic Department’s head of Curie Institute. “In 2001, Dominique Stoppa-Lyonnet asked herself the question of detection’s optimization in breath congenital cancers’ tests. Whichever it regards DNA sequencing or DHPLC detection’s technologies, those slow methods are not adapted to the patients’ needs. Thereafter, Dominique Stoppa-Lyonnet contacted Jean-Louis Viovy at the Curie Institute, who has the reputation to be a biomedical ‘tool box’ inventor, especially in Macromolecules and Microsystems domain. The creation of FLUIGENT emerged from their collaboration.” The first pillar of Fluigent was achieved by the setting up of a flow control device used in Microfluidics. An audit carried out for the valorization of patents of Curie has revealed that a flow control device would allow answering to definite problems that researchers have come across while manipulating small quantity of fluids, in the microlitre range. This patented technology (Fastab, for fast stabilization) is now commercialized in 2 versions, with 4 or 8 channels (MFCS 4C and MFCS 8C). The company has joined today the Cochin greenhouse of ventures, and counts now eight members of staff

 

What makes Fluigent successful?

The management of fluids in microfluidic setup for analysis is traditionally done with the aid of devices like syringe and peristaltic pump, which are poorly adapted to the regular efflux achievements in the microchannels where the hydrodynamic resistance is high. The Fastab technology controls the pressure at the entrance and exit of the micro channels, which lead to a constant, fast flow of the fluids. “When in 2005, the first prototype was completed, it was a simple and robust device; a lot of visitors of the MMBM Laboratory already wanted to buy it. It was the first concept evidence!

 

How do you describe the market of the MFCS?

Our customers are research laboratories from Academic or private companies. It could be for Lab-on-chip & μTAS-systems, Micro chemistry, Rheology study, Liquid handling in bio-technology, Micro Emulsion production and control, Laboratory automation, Fuel Cells System… We are happy to count in our customer list companies like Rhodia, Sony, CEA, NIH, Stanford University…

 

How do see the evolution of Fluigent in the coming 5 years?

The strategy of the company consists of self-financing the business activities and the R&D unit throughout the sales of innovating devices (MFCS) or reagents (EMMA polymer). The market border line is currently limited, but the experts of MIT estimates that: “the Microfluidic will belong to the top ten technologies that will change the world in the 21st century”. The research activities of Fluigent are focused today on three projects: The development of a “Lab on Chip” for the detection of Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA), one of the main sources of nosocomial infections. The company is also involved in the NeuroTAS European project which has for goal setting up a total analyzing system of blood biomarkers. This device should allow an early diagnostic of the Alzheimer illness and other neurological degenerative disorders. The latest project named PREDICAN concerns ontogenetic diagnostic for predictive medicine. It will be presented at the BIO2008 congress in San Diego.