EDITORIAL In the news : - Truffle Capital

N°17 October 2010
Carmat, the designer and developer of the world’s
most advanced total artificial heart, had its Scientific
Advisory Board meet on September 12 at the venue
of the 24 th Annual Meeting of the European
Association for Cardiothoracic Surgery (EACTS) in
Geneva (Switzerland). The Scientific Advisory Board
(chaired by Professor Alain Carpentier) discussed the
Symetis, a company developing new transcatheter
aortic valve implantation (TAVI) systems, recently
completed patient enrolment in its ACURATE TA
first‐in‐man (FIM) clinical study and positive
preliminary results. ACURATE TA is a self‐aligning
nitinol stent valve designed for optimal trans‐apical
delivery, providing the physician with unmatched
positioning tolerance and ease of use. The study was
5
preparation of Carmat's clinical trials through to the
end of 2011. In July, Carmat successfully listed on the
Alternext market of NYSE Euronext, with a view to
performing the first implantation of its total artificial
heart in a patient in 2011 and commercializing the
device by 2013.
conducted on 40 patients and is the largest 2nd
generation First In Man (FIM) study ever conducted.
Successful valve implantation with the ACURATE TA
was done in 38 patients (95.0%). Symetis will soon
begin a pilot clinical study, a major step toward
achieving European compliance and the CE mark. The
company has just received 25 million Swiss Francs in
a new round of financing, mainly from Truffle Capital.
Deinove, the biofuels and green chemistry specialist, partners with VTT Technical Research Centre of
Finland having a Centre of Excellence in White Biotechnology ‐ Green Chemistry
Deinove, the world's leading specialist in the
application of deinococci bacteria to biofuels and
green chemistry, partnered in July with the top
European research centre on industrial enzymes and
bioprocesses, VTT Technical Research Centre of
Finland.
Ten senior VTT researchers will team up with Deinove
and its French academic partners from CNRS and
INSA to leverage the exceptional properties of
Deinococcus bacteria in the digestion of biomass and
the development of an integrated process for the
bioproduction of ethanol and chemicals from
renewable feedstocks.
The general objective of the work plan established by
Deinove and VTT is to evaluate the different
Deinococcus candidate strains screened by Deinove
for its cellulosic ethanol production process. The
Deinol process will then be scaled‐up and tested in an
industrial pilot by the sugar‐company TEREOS.
Deinove also received in September the first
installment granted by the French Innovation Agency
Oseo (Strategic Industrial Innovation programme) to
the Deinol project for the production of cellulosic
ethanol using the Deinococcus. The payment by Oseo
of the first installment, of € 1,4 million out of a total
of €6 million funding granted to the DEINOL
project,aims at opening up (by 2014) new pathways
for lignocellulosic ("second‐generation") ethanol
production in existing industrial installations.
Deinove also appointed Philippe Duval (Chairman of
the Executive Board at Tereos, Deinove’s partner and
investor in Deinove’s IPO) to its Board of Directors.