The start-up Lafame and Erganeo announce the signing of an exclusive licensing agreement for an innovative bioinformatics process in virology, aimed at securing the effectiveness of treatments and vaccines.
RNA viruses — such as hepatitis C, influenza, measles, and Covid-19 — exhibit very high mutation rates, which makes the development and long-term effectiveness of many vaccines highly complex.
To address this challenge, researchers have developed an innovation project designed to predict the evolutionary trajectories of viruses, primarily RNA viruses, in order to identify robust therapeutic regions. The objective is to anticipate mutations that could enable viruses to evade antiviral treatments or vaccines, thereby strengthening the long-term effectiveness of prevention and treatment strategies against viral infections.
Developed at Université Paris Cité and the CNRS, this technology is the result of several years of research conducted by Professor Anne Vanet and her teams. This work led to a patent filing and software registration in 2022, which Erganeo leveraged to carry out the industrial valorization of the project.
This momentum led to the creation, in July 2025, of the start-up Lafame, founded by the project team to ensure the development and industrialization of the technology. The young company, incubated within Paris Biotech Santé, secured several funding awards in 2025 (French Tech Emergence Grant, Paris Innovation Fund, Wilco honorary loans), supporting its initial development phases.
The commercialization of the process is scheduled for 2027. By combining bioinformatics approaches with the analysis of viral evolutionary mechanisms, this method paves the way for the development of more effective therapeutic strategies better adapted to the evolving dynamics of pathogens. “This innovation illustrates the potential of French academic research to deliver breakthrough solutions to global health challenges. Erganeo’s support in technology transfer has enabled the structuring and acceleration of the industrial development of this technology,” said Naceur Tounekti, President of Erganeo.
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