After more than 10 years of cooperation, the François Baclesse Center and LABÉO have formalized their partnership by signing an agreement on September 3, 2021. The aim of this agreement is to pool human resources, equipment, and premises in the service of "single health" in Normandy. Explanations.
The cancer genetics laboratory at the François Baclesse Center is France's leading laboratory for molecular diagnosis of genetic predispositions to breast and ovarian cancer. The LABÉO laboratory is one of France's largest public interest groups (GIP) in terms of animal health, food safety, and the environment. They pool their expertise, infrastructure, and cutting-edge technologies to promote "unique health."
What is the concept of unique healthcare?
The concept of "one health" is based on the fact that human, animal and environmental health are closely linked. Human health cannot be conceived in isolation from animal, plant or soil health. This concept provides a better understanding of the interdependencies between the environment, agriculture, food and health.
The Centre François Baclesse and LABÉO, an unchanging partnership for over 10 years
This collaboration began in 2010 with the participation of LABÉO (then Laboratoire Frank Duncombe) in the investment of the high-throughput sequencing platform called "SÉSAME" – Sequencing for Health, Agronomy, the Sea, and the Environment, located at the François Baclesse Center. This platform is open to research teams in the region. Since then, the two institutions have collaborated on a very regular basis, and the François Baclesse Center welcomes LABÉO staff into its research teams for development or research purposes.
What is sequencing? It is a technique that decodes genetic code in order to explain a disease or find a treatment. Before the advent of high-throughput sequencing (or Next Generation Sequencing (NGS)), access to the genome was very limited and slow. "It used to take more than three months to sequence two genes, whereas today we can decode an entire genome in just a few days!" explains Dr. Dominique VAUR, director of the cancer biology and genetics laboratory at the François Baclesse Center.
Today, the two establishments are formalizing this desire for cooperation in an ambitious, long-term partnership agreement.
Cooperation in the service of public health and research
The areas of cooperation between the two teams focus on sequencing techniques and bioinformatics, both in research and development and in clinical diagnosis in human and animal biology. Bioinformatics is the science that transforms raw data generated by sequencers into useful results that can be exploited medically or scientifically. "This is an opportunity for our institutions to contribute to the development of genomics in Normandy,"says Prof. Marc-André MAHE, Director General of the François Baclesse Center. " Today, human and animal health are separate worlds, but it makes perfect sense to link them," he explains.
LABÉO wishes to prioritize its strong partnership in genomics with the François Baclesse Center, within a context and approach of "single health" at the heart of the regional university system and research and health institutions. "Strengthening our collaboration with the Center was an obvious choice for us. The opportunity to benefit from such a platform has enabled us to do so within the framework of a health approach that, beyond being a simple concept, is a necessity for improving, moving faster, and anticipating,"explains Guillaume FORTIER, CEO of LABÉO.
This cooperation will also be aimed at structuring exchanges between teams to share know-how, supervise students, welcome trainees and advance mutual knowledge.
Shared infrastructures and cutting-edge technologies
Teams will have access to the different facilities at each site. This rapprochement will also enable investments to be rationalized and optimized, with a view to greater complementarity.
As part of the creation of the future genomics platform supported by the Syndicat Mixte Normandie Équine Vallée, of which LABÉO is the main tenant on the Saint-Contest (14) site, the Centre François Baclesse will benefit from access to equipment, premises and office space in order to carry out the various projects that will be carried out there.
"I am very pleased to formalize a historic partnership with LABEO that dates back more than 10 years. This is an opportunity to contribute to medicine and human and animal health in a rapidly expanding sector,"concludes Dr. Vaur.
