Four Major Projects at Gustave Roussy Will Be Financed by the Investments for the Future Program

Among the 17 innovative, large-scale research projects in the healthcare field selected as part of the 5th call for proposals to the “Hospital-University Health Research” (RHU) instrument of the Investments for the Future Program, there are four projects coordinated by Gustave Roussy:

  • Immunolife – Treating the microbiota to bypass resistance to immunotherapy, Professor Laurence Zitvogel,

  • LySAIRI – Radio-immunotherapy guided by artificial intelligence, Professor Eric Deutsch,

  • Organomic – Personalized medicine through functional testing of organoids and tumor avatars, Fanny Jaulin,

  • Reveal – Liquid biopsy to follow patients with non–small cell lung cancer, Professor Benjamin Besse

This recognition reflects the dynamism of Gustave Roussy’s research teams and their ability to conduct translational and collaborative research at the highest level. The significant funding associated with these projects will help the Institute to develop treatment techniques that are ultra-personalized, less invasive, more effective, and less toxic: liquid biopsy, patient-derived avatars, and artificial intelligence will shape the care of tomorrow and defy prognoses.

“Only a rigorous scientific approach leads to tangible progress for patients. These four major projects are all geared towards changing the future of patients living with cancer” - Professor Fabrice Barlesi, General Director of Gustave Roussy.

RHU Immunolife

Coordinated by Professor Laurence Zitvogel and Dr. Lisa Derosa, Immunolife studies the link between immunotherapy resistance and dysbiosis. The aim is to see how a chronic imbalance or poor adaptation of the microorganisms that make up the intestinal microbiota affect the effectiveness of immunotherapy treatments. This dysbiosis can be caused by taking antibiotics. The project aims to offer immunotherapy-resistant lung, kidney, and bladder cancer patients new personalized therapeutic solutions based on the transplantation of allogeneic products derived from gut microbiota to improve their responses to treatments. The consortium will develop a diagnostic screening platform to:

  • rapidly characterize patients with dysbiosis who will be most likely to benefit from this new type of intervention and,

  • select the best microbial ecosystems for each patient.

A multicenter observational cohort including more than 1,000 patients will be launched in 2022, followed by a clinical trial of more than 200 patients to compare the effectiveness of a treatment combining a modification of the microbiota prior to immunotherapy with immunotherapy alone.

The nine consortium partners (Gustave Roussy, INSERM, Université Paris-Saclay, Bioaster, INRAe, IHU Méditerranée Infection, MaaT Pharma, everImmune and Quinten Health) bring together the best experts in onco-immunology, microbiology, and machine learning.

RHU LysAIRI

Many cancer patients receive radiation therapy, a treatment almost as common as surgery. There is a need to improve survival and quality of life during these treatments by relying on imaging techniques, computerized treatment planning systems, new accelerators integrating imaging, and a better understanding of radiobiology. An essential condition to achieve these objectives is to better characterize the location and extent of the tumor in order to reduce the irradiation of healthy tissues and over-treatments, which can negatively impact circulating lymphocytes and result in lymphopenia (significant decrease in circulating lymphocytes) and immunosenescence. These effects mitigate the expected benefit of radioimmunotherapy, a treatment that combines radiation therapy and immunotherapies (PD-1, CTLA-4).

Coordinated by Professor Eric Deutsch, the LySAIRI project will initially offer patients with squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck innovative solutions to potentiate the effectiveness of radioimmunotherapy.

The project is based on numerical analyses for the precise delimitation of the tumor volume to be irradiated, the automated planning of treatment by artificial intelligence, and immuno-potentiation by interleukins.

 LysAIRI brings together two cancer centers (Gustave Roussy and the Léon Bérard Centre), two innovative SMEs (TheraPanacea, TRIBVN Healthcare), and three university centers (Université Paris-Saclay, Inserm, Essec).

RHU Organomic

The Organomic program will combine cutting-edge expertise in cell biology, microfluidics, applied mathematics and artificial intelligence. Coordinated by research director Fanny Jaulin, Organomic aims to develop personalized medicine based on new patient-derived models called "organoids," made from a simple tumor biopsy and maintained in the laboratory. These avatars recapitulate the specific characteristics of each tumor and are predictive of treatment responses to guide oncologists’ therapeutic decisions. The project will use microfluidics technology to standardize and automate the large-scale analysis of organoids derived from each patient.

Several types of diagnostic or prognostic medical devices will be developed to predict the response to different panels of drugs or drug combinations (CHEMOGRAM), predict the immune response (IMMUNOGRAM), and predict tumor aggressiveness (INVAGRAM). Alongside Gustave Roussy, the consortium brings together three academic research organizations (Inserm, Institut Pasteur, CentraleSupélec), two biotechnology companies (SEngine Precision Medicine, Okomera), a pharmaceutical group (AstraZeneca), and a university (Université Paris-Saclay).

RHU Reveal

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer mortality worldwide. The management of non–small cell lung cancer, the most common subtype (85% of cases), was transformed by the advent of targeted therapies and then by immunotherapy. But currently, there is no biological marker for the follow-up of patients with lung cancers, such as PSA for monitoring the evolution of prostate cancer.

The Reveal program, coordinated by Professor Benjamin Besse, aims to invent new methods of diagnosing and monitoring cancer for these patients. It is based on the analysis, also called a liquid biopsy, of the DNA of tumor cells present in the blood. It avoids repeated biopsies of the tumor. The circulating tumor DNA detected in liquid biopsies is directly associated with the tumor load and its measurement allows a much simpler follow-up than imaging while providing additional information, such as tumor markers, to be able to adjust the management of the disease and prescribe new drugs. After surgical excision, the liquid biopsy will also detect residual disease and avoid post-operative treatment, if it turns out to be negative. During follow-up, the liquid biopsy will be able to detect a molecular recurrence, or the occurrence of a second cancer, very early.

The consortium brings together recognized experts in thoracic oncology, immunology, circulating tumor DNA analysis, and machine learning (Gustave Roussy, University of Montpellier, Inserm, CentraleSupélec, Université Paris-Saclay) and three biotechnology companies (stilla® technologies, Integragen, Cell-environment).