This is an evening that belies the technophobe reputation of France. If our elites are at best ignorant and at worst hostile to innovation, young French people, themselves, have gotten in … and with what talent! This is what appeared, Wednesday, April 15 in the evening, at the presentation of the MIT Technology Review prices to “French Innovators under 35″ in the premises of its partner, the BNP Paribas Workshop.
For the third Paris edition of this event, now declined worldwide, ten young French entrepreneurs were rewarded for their revolutionary technologies. “The world’s problems can be solved by technology,” said the President of the Kathleen Kennedy journal.
Health, nutrition, environment, education, political uses of digital technology … It is true that the presentations were bluffing, both in their quality and diversity. Here are our favorite four.
Future Antibiotics
Duportet Xavier, 27, Eligo Bioscience
“According to WHO, in 2050, world’s leading cause of death will be resistance to antibiotics. This will cause 10 million deaths per year! ” Xavier, 27, knows how to capture the attention of his audience. The start-up synthetic biology he co-founded with David Bikard, proposes to meet this enormous challenge, by addressing the causes of this dangerous phenomenon. That is to say that these medical weapons “of mass destruction” indiscriminately kill good and bad bacteria in our microbiome.
In response, this former agronomist, double degree from MIT and Inria, has developed a genomic editing technique that would allow new therapies to kill pathogenic bacteria, while leaving others untouched. The process has already been proven in mice infected with multi-resistant Staphylococcus aureus: a bacterium responsible for tens of thousands of deaths worldwide every year. And if all goes well, clinical trials on humans could begin within two years. . Hope that makes Xavier, according to MIT, French Innovator of the Year
Incidentally, the young man is not only a “lab rat” with his Hello Tomorrow initiative, he enlisted big names in the CAC 40 to ensure that the best scientific breakthroughs are spreading in the economy.
low cost artificial Main
Nicolas Huchet, 31, BionicoHand
Nicolas has not made great schools, and has not the soul of a start-upper. But an accident of life and ingenuity led him to develop a prosthesis that could change the lives of tens of thousands of people on the planet. What is this former industrial mechanic become sound technician the additional distinction of Social Innovator of the Year.
In 2002, Nicolas lost his hand in an accident at work, and sees install a prosthesis which does not allow it to move all the fingers. Very disappointed, he did not have access to the most ergonomic devices, emerged ten years later, because, he says with humor:
They cost an arm and not reimbursed by Social Security. “
Nicolas discovers the net the first plastic robot, printed in 3D, the designer and” maker “in French Gaël Langevin offers” open source “(royalty free). With the help of passionate Rennes LabFab, while Nicolas factory for 300 euros a prosthetic hand, from plans and advice Gael and Brazilian researchers.
Today, our prototype is able to capture large objects, with the contraction of the muscles. “
It remains to miniaturize parts, engine and find them under Development … A real hope for making it accessible to a hand sophisticated.
artificial
Early detection of skin cancer
Anaïs Barut, 22, Damae Medical
The youngest winners of this selection is not only impressive in his career double graduate of HEC Paris and Die Innovation Contractors of the Institut d’Optique Graduate School. The invention it has with the two co-founders of the company, is likely to save the lives of patients with skin cancer.
A third of melanomas are not diagnosed, so that an early detection greatly improves the chances of recovery, “recalled the girl.
Damae Medical has the ambition to develop and commercialize a device for the dermatologist, even within his cabinet, to acquire images of skin abnormalities in depth, directly to the surface of the skin, non-invasively.
A bit like an ultrasound, but with a resolution thousand times. “
The resulting image will know early, when skin cells are cancerous or not. This avoids both biopsies (invasive sampling) unnecessary and 15 days to get results.
Participatory Local Democracy
Julie Pimodan , 31, Fluicity
Denying a slightly preppy physics, Julie is a bourlingueuse who does not shy. After studying journalism at the University of Brussels (“I’m half Belgian”), the young woman worked for Al Jazeera and the BBC Middle East, including the launch of two magazines in Yemen and media for women in Abu Dhabi. She says:
Living the Arab Spring in these areas, I understood the importance to democracy of tools like Twitter and Youtube “
Revenue in Europe, Julie. spent four years at Google, to learn digital marketing.
Fluicity was born from the synthesis of both my professional experiences. It is a platform that puts digital tools in the service of democracy. “
Specifically, the mayors Fluicity offers a website (and tomorrow a smartphone application) enabling them to gather the opinions of citizens, to survey residents on specific projects, and thus to make decisions more in line with their expectations. The young entrepreneur is in advanced discussions with Sebastien Le Cornu, the UMP mayor of Vernon (Eure) and three councilors in Ile-de-France and in the South.
His hope? Give citizens a taste for political participation by enriching the quality and interactivity of the dialogue with their representatives. And there is urgency. It points dismayed:
40% of people do not vote in local elections, 87% of French people think that political mock their opinions, more than 70% even have doubts about democracy. ”
Dominique Nora
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