Santexpo 2026: Visibility and New Partnerships on the Horizon
From May 19 to 21, 2026, the University Innovation Hub (PUI) in Montpellier and six innovative healthcare solutions it supports participated in the Santexpo 2026trade show in Paris. The event enabled the PUI and the project leaders to boost their visibility, forge new partnerships, and open up new opportunities for collaboration and development. Here’s a look back at the trade show, where the PUI shared the stage with MedVallée at the “Montpellier: Territory of Innovation” booth, located within the Occitanie Region and its agency Ad’Occ.
A flagship event in the healthcare ecosystem for over 60 years, Santexpo provides an ideal setting for networking, discussion, and the sharing of experiences. In this context, the Montpellier University Hospital (PUI) was present for the second consecutive year at the Occitanie Region’s pavilion, alongside Medvallée, a center of excellence in global health.
The participants included Christian Assaf, vice president of Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole; Anne Ferrer, executive director of the Montpellier University Hospital; Magali Roubieu, Director of Strategic Programs atUM Ian Soulairol, co-founder and CTO of MB Therapeutics, participated in the roundtable discussion titled “Montpellier: A Hub of Excellence in Global Health Research and Innovation,” highlighting the region’s role in national and international health innovation trends.
A unique opportunity to increase your visibility
The innovative “Inseparable” solution—which won the PUI Innovation Award in 2023, is supported by the Occitanie Region, and is backed by the spin-off from Montpellier University Hospital, SATT AxLR, and Medvallée—was featured at the trade show.
Astrid Herrero, a surgeon at Montpellier University Hospital, also participated in the event. Her innovation, called Flow Graft, is an “all-in-one” coordination platform for organ transplant logistics. It helps improve communication among medical professionals and enables the real-time sharing of essential data on organ quality. Affiliated with the French startup Graft Smart and partnered with the Montpellier University Hospital, SATT AxLR, andEFPMO, Flow Graft is set to launch nationwide. The networking opportunities provided by the trade show were therefore perfectly timed: “Participating in Santexpo allowed us to gain visibility and share our progress. I was particularly impressed by the discussions with healthcare professionals and hospital administrators, but the booth also allowed us to meet and exchange ideas with project managers and representatives from regional organizations.”
This view is shared by neurosurgeon Jean-Jacques Santini, who was also present alongside the PUI to present his innovation, the Stylo Tatoueur. This solution, developed with the Montpellier Cancer Institute (ICM) in partnership with SATT AxLR, facilitates radiation therapy by enabling precise, reproducible, and safe skin marking.“Santexpo gave me the opportunity to meet key players who will help me take this project further, ”says the healthcare executive. “I now believe I can overcome certain obstacles, particularly legislative ones.”
PlasmoDetect, a former winner of the Montpellier Innovation Booster (BIM), was also present at Santexpo. Led by university hospital physician Grégoire Pasquier, this artificial intelligence-based innovation makes it possible to identify different species of Plasmodium in real time from blood smears, directly on a smartphone. This is a promising solution for improving malaria diagnosis, particularly in resource-limited areas where microscopy experts are scarce.
Prospects for New Partnerships
Among the solutions presented at the Santexpo trade show by the Montpellier University Hospital (PUI) was AI Stroke, led by Cédric Javault and developed in partnership with the Nîmes University Hospital (CHU), SDIS34, LIRMM (UM, CNRS, Paul Valéry University, UPVD), and SATT AxLR. This software improves the early detection of strokes in the prehospital setting, thanks to the world’s largest visual database of strokes (20,000 patient videos and 6 million images).
For the AI Stroke team, Santexpo was an opportunity to connect with professionals in the field and develop new partnerships: “We’re leaving the trade show very satisfied. We had fruitful discussions that confirm the interest in our solution. The PUI helped us structure our project and expand our network.” The future looks just as promising, as the AI Stroke team now plans to accelerate its outreach to healthcare professionals and turn its attention to the U.S. market to conduct a “real-world” study in the United States.
For Christian Jorgensen, head ofthe IHU Immune4Cure, attending Santexpo was also a rewarding experience. His Cartigen project, launched in partnership with the European Regional Development Fund, the University Hospital (CHU), and the University of Montpellier (UM), is a platform that combines motion analysis with tissue engineering and robotics to provide a better understanding of osteoarticular diseases. “The funding for one of our engineers’ travel, as well as the provision of additional access passes, allowed us to bring a representative from each of our three sites,” says Christian Jorgensen. “We’d also like to highlight the quality of the hospitality: everything was ready upon our arrival, which allowed us to focus fully on our discussions.”
The Cartigen team was also able to test 3D scanning technology directly at the trade show , which could be of interest to its “mobility” platform. “This type of encounter clearly illustrates the added value of a trade show, where face-to-face interaction helps foster opportunities for collaboration.”
Collaboration as a Driver of Innovation in Healthcare
This openness to collaboration was also praised by Stéphane Corp, CEO of DeepPulseNeuro, a company developing minimally invasive technology that provides access to deep brain regions without surgery in order to improve the diagnosis of complex epilepsies. Founded in October 2025, the company is the result of a partnership with the University of Montpellier, Montpellier University Hospital, SATT AxLR, the Lirmm and LMGC research laboratories (UM, CNRS), IBMM (UM, CNRS,ENSCM), the Montpellier Business Incubator (BIC), Medvallée,Eurobiomed, Créalia, the Occitanie Region, andBPI France. “The roundtable discussions confirmed the collaborative momentum that is absolutely essential for bringing groundbreaking projects, such as DeepPulseNeuro, to fruition,” notes Stéphane Corp, adding that the trade show fostered exchanges, including within the network of PUI and Medvallée participants. “The PUI has given us access to a level of visibility that we could not have afforded at this stage,” he concludes.
Through its participation in the Santexpo trade show, the Montpellier University Research Institute (PUI) appears to have once again achieved its goal of fostering synergies between academic research, the business community, and institutional stakeholders, thereby reaffirming its role as a catalyst for innovation in healthcare.
