Thierry Drugeot
ABOUT
Thierry Drugeot has more than 27 years of experience in diverse pharmaceutical environments. He had the opportunity to start and grow numerous businesses in Europe, of which oncology and rare diseases, especially during his stay at Pfizer (20 years). Further to Pfizer, he joined the Recordati Group where he led the French affiliate (300+ employees). He is also very committed as Business Angel in several start-ups in the healthcare sector as investor and board member.
Thierry DRUGEOT
CEO
Barbara Ottolini
ABOUT
Barbara Ottolini is a medical biotechnologist that completed her training between Italy, France and the United Kingdom. She obtained her PhD in Genetics in 2014 at the University of Leicester, UK, with focus on the evolution of copy number variable genomic regions.She worked as Post-Doctoral Research Associate until 2017 on the use of circulating free DNA for early detection of cancer, monitoring of disease progression and characterisation of tumour heterogeneity. Over the years she collaborated on several projects investigating: non-small cell lung cancer, mesothelioma, malignant melanoma, soft tissue sarcoma, gastro-oesophageal cancer and peripheral T-cell lymphoma. Her area of expertise includes the design of PCR-based assays for somatic mutation detection and targeted panels for Next Generation Sequencing.
Barbara OTTOLINI
Chief scientific officer
Brice PASTOR
Tech MS
Alain Thierry
ABOUT
Alain R. Thierry's expertise focuses on the diagnostic capacity of circulating nucleic acids and the development of new methods towards personalised medicine. His team developed an animal model to specifically quantify circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA) from its different origins, demonstrating the crucial importance of detecting short ctDNA fragments to improve specificity and sensitivity of ctDNA analysis. This observation enabled dominant intellectual property and the design of the IntPlex® test. He coordinated the first prospective blinded multicentre study showing the first clinical validation of plasma analysis for the detection of mutations in cancer patients, as KRAS and BRAF mutations from colorectal cancer patients. His team was the first to demonstrate the clinical utility of cfDNA analysis in metastatic colorectal cancer patients. His research aims focus on various aspects of the ctDNA potential: (i) detecting the emergence of new mutations following targeted therapy; (ii) developing the IntPlex® test for the multi-marker quantitative analysis of ctDNA; (iii) studying the follow up of CRC patients; (iv), the prognostic power of ctDNA and (v) the screening power of ctDNA as a universal cancer test. His team is now coordinating 10 clinical trials (2 European grants) and 3 basic research programs. He is the principal founder of DiaDx SAS (Montpellier) devoted to provide liquid biopsy solutions in oncology.
Alain THIERRY
Scientific consultant