Sarah Colombani, a BIM graduate, launches OcciCal Therapeutics
Currently in development, OcciCal Therapeutics aims to finalize a treatment capable of addressing a common respiratory disorder in hospital settings. The project leader, a research engineer at the PhyMedExp, Sarah Colombani is supported by the Montpellier Innovation Booster (BIM), which is dedicated to identifying and supporting innovative projects.
The young woman never would have imagined entering the business world so quickly. Barely eight months after completing her dissertation—and propelled by the accelerated support of BIM (Booster Innovation Montpellier), of which she has been a recipient since early December—Sarah Colombani is in the process of launching her very first startup. Named OcciCal Therapeutics, this spin-off actually brings together five co-founders from Inserm, the CNRS, and the University of Montpellier, where most of the preliminary experiments related to the project were conducted.
Specifically, she and her team aim to overcome a common respiratory illness that affects 70% of patients upon admission to the intensive care unit. “It’s a condition that’s little known to the public and develops in the hospital. For now, it’s hard to avoid, and it extends the length of hospital stays by an average of five days. It therefore contributed to the overcrowding of intensive care units and the shortage of hospital beds during the COVID crisis, when everyone became aware of the stakes involved in this problem, ”she explains.
Alignment of Planets
For her dissertation, which she defended in July 2023, the researcher focused on a heart condition associated with autism—a condition that affects many children—and for which she was honored by the Foundation for Medical Research. This is a promising area of research directly linked to the respiratory condition that OcciCal Therapeutics is investigating, since the protein and the underlying mechanism are the same.“But by the end of my dissertation, I still felt like something was missing. I didn’t see any concrete impact on patients,”Sarah admits.
So, during informal discussions with the future co-founders and other researchers who had been working on the subject for over 10 years, the idea suddenly “took root.”“It all came down to a perfect alignment of the stars. Part of the team had already demonstrated the feasibility of our concept in animal models closely related to humans. This allowed us to prove the effectiveness of this miracle molecule, synthesized by the chemists we work with. So after they filed a patent in November 2022, we decided it was time to take the plunge. We all had that ‘aha’ moment together in early 2023,”explains Sarah.
The treatment she hopes to finalize with her colleagues through OcciCal Therapeutics was thus conceived through a combination of collective brainstorming and diverse expertise. Now backed by funding from the BIM, which amounts to 48,550 euros, the young woman is preparing to move on to the next stage. The first step will be to find the right solvent to administer this molecule to humans without compromising its efficacy. She and her colleagues will then determine the treatment regimen—in other words, how many injections and at what intervals… “These are essential experiments before we can move on to the regulatory preclinical phase, ” adds the researcher.
“This was the first time I pitched the project”
In this promising success story, BIM served as a catalyst. It also allowed Sarah to gain skills in the business world without having to go to business school.“I had to learn everything from scratch. I was starting from zero in this area. But I was truly motivated. I told myself that BIM would be a good first exercise.” As part of the Booster program last October, the research engineer completed three days of training to learn the basics of pitching a project. After that, she finally took the plunge alongside her partners.“It was the first time I’d pitched the project with them. We answered questions in perfect harmony, in front of a multidisciplinary audience—though they weren’t researchers. It was good practice. Even if I’d only received two euros, I think I would have seen it as a victory, given the skills I’d acquired in such a short time,”she smiles.
As a result, the team secured substantial funding to launch the project and is currently receiving support from a sponsor within the company’s ecosystem to guide OcciCal Therapeutics through its first year. In this case, the regional economic development agency AD’OCC…“When you come from a research lab, that’s invaluable. I’ve learned a tremendous amount,”says Sarah, who hopes to bring her treatment to patients by 2035…