The health technologies and sciences cluster

In Ille-et-Vilaine, there are just over one hundred small and medium enterprises operating in the health sector. Their activities cover a very wide area of expertise i.e. development of new medication, diagnostic testing, cardiac simulation program, nutrition etc.
In Rennes, the companies and centres working in this field can also draw on the high-quality biomedical research that is helping to advance the medicine of the future.

• Pharmaceuticals and toxicology
• Genomics and post-genomics
• Bioinformatics
• Imaging and telemedicine
• Oncology
• Cardiology
• Hepatology

Download the theme-based brochure The health technologies and sciences cluster.

The "sea-agriculture-health genetic engineering centre" has been granted official recognition by the Ministry of Research. It brings together 54 research laboratories and 2,000 people, including 800 researchers working in universities and leading research organisations throughout Brittany and Pays de la Loire (CNRS, Inserm, Inra, Inria and Ifremer). Biogenouest also refers to 5 technological platforms established using the skills and amenities existing on various sites. These platforms specialise in biocomputing, DNA chips, proteome, gene typing and sequencing and functional exploration.

Biogenouest involves 19 research units in Rennes.

It coordinates 40 research teams involving 235 researchers and 210 university and teaching hospital staff in the following regions: Brittany, Centre, Pays de la Loire and Poitou-Charentes.

The Cancéropôle has four objectives:

• to identify the biological profils of patients,
• to promote immunotherapy for cancers,
• to improve the ability of cancer-fighting agents to target tumours,
• to obtain maximum benefit from marine products.

Three platforms have been set up to support this research: a network of tumour libraries, a functional imaging resource, a centre for the management of clinical trials.

In Rennes, the Cancéropôle Grand Ouest involves 15 fundamental and clinical research units.

Five companies were set up to optimise work carried out in the biomedical research field i.e.

Etiam: development of co-operative medical imaging products;
Bioprédic: service company working with the pharmaceuticals industry in the field of pharmaceutical metabolism and specialising in in vitro studies;
Biotrial: clinical and pre-clinical assessment of medication;
Genesystems: development and marketing of innovative technologies for diagnosis and research; Innova Proteomics: Proteomics CRO and drug discovery

Other projects are currently undergoing technological and economic validation. With backing from the Emergys business incubator, they may well give rise to further company start-ups.

In Rennes, leading national research bodies such as Inserm, CNRS, Inra and Inria have joined forces with the teaching hospital (CHU) and the University of Rennes 1, pooling their human resources, materials and equipment to bring a higher dynamic to cross-disciplinary research, create a critical mass, acquire high-cost equipment and share its use.

The setting up of the federating research institute known as Génétique fonctionnelle agronomie et santé (GFAS, functional genetics, agronomy and health) is one of the results of this development.

It involves 350 researchers and engineers and works in the following areas:

• structural and mechanistic aspects of genetic expression,
• cell cycles, apoptosis, differentiation and oncogenesis (CADO)
• metabolic disturbances and stress,
• physiology and pathophysiology of reproduction,
• metabolism of iron and its pathologies.

• CHU de Rennes (teaching hospital), leading centre for liver tranplants,
• a super computer for the management of massive genomics data,
• a high-throughput proteomics platform,
• an experimental imaging platform for medium-sized animals (the only one of its kind in Europe),
• Rennes' cancer treatment centre, the 1^st site to be equipped with a cyclotron linked to a PET camera (positron emission tomography),
• a transcriptomics platform DNA chips,
• a genetic modification platform,
• a centre for technological innovation in cardiology,
• a cell therapy cluster in Rennes,
• 450 clinicals research trials underway.