About us

From left to right, Vianney Poignavent (CSO), Alexandre Hill (CEO) and Adrien Trolet (CTO) form the co-founding team of Serendip innovations. They are committed to harnessing the properties of plants for the benefit of human health.

History

Company

Team

Advisory boards

History of

Serendip

Close study of a virus that infects grapevines has revealed remarkable surface modification capabilities, which have given rise to two families of patents.

It is now possible to produce this virus without any genetic material – a so-called virus-like particle (VLP). A few years later, between 2020 and 2023, thanks to the thesis work of a student at the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology (IBMC), a first therapeutic vaccination application by cell targeting was imagined. The concept is to use this custom-engineered nanoparticle to specifically deliver antigens to the most effective antigen-presenting immune cells, triggering a specific immune response against the tumor. The results are unequivocal. The nanoparticle, and its targeting capabilities, triggered a better anti-tumor immune response than antigens alone, and thus improved the survival rate of the mice. Armelle Guingand, the young doctoral student, in charge of these in vivo experiments, even won the first Kerner prize from the ARC Foundation thanks to the scientific vulgarization of her work.

The

company

Serendip is a preclinical-stage biotechnology company based in Strasbourg, in France. The 3 co-founders created the company in July 2023. The team is hosted into a CNRS institude (IBMP: Plant Molecular Biology Institute) and has licensed the technology from the CNRS (2 families of patents, exclusive rights).

A platform for therapeutic applications

Serendip develops an innovative nanoparticulate vectorization system for active ingredients. The unique value proposition is based on the modularity of the technology platform and its close link with plants (plant virus and plant expression system). As its first application, Serendip aims to tackle the challenges of therapeutic cancer vaccines by turning the platform into a high-performance immunization system to potentiate tumor antigens immunogenicity and trigger robust anti-tumor immune T response.

Collaborating with clinicians, their goal is to seamlessly integrate the vaccine into care protocols, potentially eliminating residual or treatment-resistant cancer cells after chemotherapy or surgery.

Strong Connection with Researchers

Currently based at the Plant Molecular Biology Institute at the heart of the European capital, we benefit from a dynamic research ecosystem, infrastructure, and proximity to the research teams behind this innovation. It’s worth noting that CNRS, INRAE, and the University of Strasbourg are owners of the patents. Serendip holds exclusive rights to exploit and sublicense the technology.