Emma Augustin

VECT-HORUS, Breaking barriers Vect-Horus designs and develops vectors that facilitate targeting and delivery of therapeutic or imaging agents to organs, including the brain and tumours. Vect-Horus combines these different agents to its vectors that specifically target various receptors, allowing these agents to cross natural barriers (first and foremost the blood-brain-barrier) which limit access of therapeutic or imaging agents to their targets. The proof of concept of the technology has already been established in animal models using different vectorized molecules. Vect-Horus endorces a mixed business model, based on its proprietary VECTrans® technology, both to make its technology platform available to pharmaceutical and biotechnology company partners and to develop an internal pipeline of products. Created in 2005, Vect-Horus is a spin-off of the Institute for Neurophysiopathology (INP, UMR7051, CNRS and Aix Marseille University), headed by Dr Michel Khrestchatisky, co-founder. Based in Marseille, France, the company has 35 employees, mostly in R&D, and develops academic collaborations with the CNRS, INSERM and CEA as well as industrial partnerships.