News

In its latest newsletter, Virnext highlights the role of public-private partnerships in accelerating health innovation and technology transfer. This issue looks back at key achievements and collaborations throughout 2025, including national and European research programmes, translational and clinical initiatives, and the continued development of international partnerships through RESPIVIR. It also showcases recent advances in respiratory virology, including innovative vaccine approaches, a...

Virnext is proud to highlight a new milestone in the transfer and scale-up of an innovation developed through its technology research platform at Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1 and the RESPIVIR International Research Laboratory. Developed in collaboration with VirexpR and Sphaira, the technology enables the generation of controlled atmospheres highly contaminated with infectious viruses, followed by their biological collection in large-volume test facilities. This approach makes it possibl...

Virnext is proud to congratulate Caroline Chupin, recipient of the Leem Thesis Award, presented during the annual graduation ceremony of the ISPB – Faculty of Pharmacy, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1. This award recognises the quality of Caroline’s doctoral research conducted within the RESPIVIR France–Canada International Research Laboratory. Her thesis focused on the development of an industrialisable production process for METAVAC® RSV, a live attenuated vaccine candidate against...

Virnext is proud to highlight the launch of the SYNDIAG programme, a new collaborative public-private project supported by the France 2030 i-Démo programme. The RESPIVIR International Research Laboratory is a partner in this ambitious project, led by AXO Science, which aims to develop an innovative decentralised diagnostic platform for improved surveillance of respiratory infections and more timely patient care. Read the press release: SYNDIAG – Press Release...

Discover the portrait of Manuel Rosa-Calatrava, researcher at the CIRI – International Research Centre in Infectious Diseases and Head of the Virnext technology research platform, published by the Pôle Universitaire d’innovation Lyon Saint-Étienne – PUI IMPULSE. In this portrait, Manuel Rosa-Calatrava discusses his vision of academic innovation, technology transfer and public-private partnerships, as well as the importance of international collaborations in advancing research and brin...

Five years of scientific progress, fruitful collaborations, and collective commitment in the fight against emerging and re-emerging respiratory viruses. We recently celebrated, in a warm and friendly atmosphere, the 5th anniversary of the International Research Laboratory #RESPIVIR (France–Canada), as well as its renewal for an additional five years to continue and accelerate our research efforts against infectious diseases. Many thanks to Bruno Lina and Laurent Schaeffer for bringing th...

#IMMUNOVIR aims to structure and develop our R&D partnership with the internationally renowned research center A*STAR Infectious Diseases Labs - A*STAR IDL. This program is structured around three complementary areas of research in the field of respiratory viral infections: (i) the study of immune responses to infections, (ii) the development of innovative diagnostic technologies, and (iii) new anti-infective immunotherapy strategies. Already supported by the #PHCMERLION program between U...

We are proud to announce that the STANDBYME project, led by Andrés Pizzorno, has been selected for the 2025 ANR Jeunes chercheuses – Jeunes chercheurs (JCJC) grant. Congratulations to Andrés and the entire RESPIVIR team for this outstanding achievement! STANDBYME aims to characterize the functional interactions between virus-infected cells and their surrounding “bystander” cells, which shape the pathophysiology and antiviral responses of the human upper respiratory tract. The project...

We are proud to announce the grant of our United States patent 12,285,433 B2, which protects the use of diltiazem as an activator of Interferon-λ (IFN-λ) expression for the prevention and/or treatment of microbial infections in human respiratory epithelia. Our research has shown that diltiazem, a calcium channel blocker currently used to treat angina, induces a broad-spectrum antiviral state in human respiratory epithelia without triggering the inflammation commonly associated with type I a...

We are proud to announce the grant of our European patent EP 4 090 334 B1 which protects the combination of diltiazem and baloxavir marboxil for use in the prevention and/or treatment of influenza virus infections, and representing a significant milestone in our commitment to innovative antiviral strategies.In a context where influenza infections continue to pose serious public health threats —due to the emergence of variants reducing vaccine efficacy and compromising current antiviral tre...