Paris-Saclay Cancer Cluster announces the 10 BOOST Grant laureates
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Grants ranging from €120,000 to €250,000 to help 10 high-potential oncology start-ups advance towards critical value-creating milestones
• Against a backdrop of tougher funding conditions for innovative companies, the PSCC is strengthening its role as an operational accelerator
• The BOOST Grant is designed to fund the critical milestones that determine access to investors, industry partners, the clinic or the market
• The laureates’ projects span the full oncology innovation value chain: research technologies, imaging, diagnostics, precision medicine, drug delivery, immunotherapy, ADCs and medical devices
Villejuif, June 2 2026 - Paris-Saclay Cancer Cluster (PSCC) today announces the 10 start-ups selected as laureates of the pilot phase of the BOOST Grant, a new financial support scheme for companies supported through the BOOST programme. With funding ranging from €120,000 to €250,000 per project, this pilot initiative aims to support innovative oncology projects at a critical point in their development.
The 10 laureates (in alphabetical order) are: Abbelight, Letsee Imaging, LiveRNA, MSInsight, One Biosciences, PEP-Therapy, Recobia Therapeutics, Skymab Biotherapeutics, Spice Bio and TheraSonic.
Launched in early 2026 under the European de minimis framework, the BOOST Grant addresses a central challenge for innovative healthcare companies: crossing the scientific, technological, regulatory, industrial or commercial milestones that determine their ability to convince investors, secure industry partnerships and accelerate their development.
In an environment marked by tougher funding conditions, investors and industry players increasingly expect projects to be de-risked, supported by robust data, solid evidence of use and a clear development pathway. The PSCC has therefore intensified its efforts to connect companies with venture capital funds, major pharmaceutical industry players and development experts, in order to support the emergence of strategic partnerships and investment opportunities.
With the BOOST Grant, the PSCC is taking a new step: beyond strategic, scientific, clinical, industrial and financial support, the cluster is providing targeted financial backing to help start-ups generate the evidence they need for their next value-creation milestone.
“In the current context, the challenge is not only to bring forward strong scientific projects. We must help start-ups cross the critical milestones that enable them to convince investors, secure industry partnerships and, ultimately, accelerate patient access to innovation. This is precisely the role of the PSCC: to understand the real bottlenecks in oncology innovation and mobilise the right levers to overcome them.” Prof. Eric Vivier, President of the PSCC
Targeted support to overcome the critical bottlenecks in oncology innovation
Beyond their scientific diversity, the 10 selected projects have one thing in common: they are all at a pivotal moment, when an innovation must generate the data, evidence of use or validation required to cross a decisive development milestone. For some, the challenge is to confirm a preclinical or clinical proof of concept; for others, to validate a technology under industrial conditions, prepare a regulatory or health-economic dossier, demonstrate commercial traction or structure a pharmaceutical partnership.
The BOOST Grant was designed as a targeted de-risking tool, addressing concrete bottlenecks: the generation of robust data, validation on patient samples or relevant preclinical models, biomarker development, or establishment at the heart of the Campus Grand Parc ecosystem.
By focusing on these milestones, the PSCC is not replacing investors or industry players; it intervenes upstream, at a stage where well-calibrated support can transform a promising hypothesis into an asset that is clearer, more robust and more attractive for the next development stage.
10 laureates, 10 de-risking milestones
Abbelight
Abbelight develops super-resolution microscopy solutions that make it possible to observe cell biology at nanometric scale. The supported project aims to structure, at Campus Grand Parc, a service activity and standardised workflows dedicated to the needs of the pharmaceutical industry and oncology, in particular for the characterisation of complex therapies such as antibody-drug conjugates and multispecific antibodies.
Bottleneck addressed: moving from a cutting-edge imaging technology, historically widely used in academic environments, to robust, reproducible workflows that can be used by industrial teams. The Grant will help share the financial and operational risk associated with launching a service laboratory at The Hive, with high initial costs and a gradual revenue ramp-up.
Letsee Imaging
Letsee Imaging is developing a breakthrough mammography system based on Hartmann X imaging, with the ambition of improving the early detection of breast cancer, including in dense breasts. Its technology measures X-ray deviations, a parameter not accessible with current mammography systems, in order to reveal tumour structures that are currently difficult to detect.
Bottleneck addressed: transforming an initial promising proof of concept into high-precision images in a hospital environment, sufficiently compelling to trigger private funding and a partnership with a major mammography player. The project must also strengthen intellectual property, obtain structuring feedback from radiologists and prepare the industrial transfer.
LiveRNA
LiveRNA is developing a new generation of messenger RNA (mRNA)-based immunotherapies designed to activate innate immunity, with an initial strategy focused on liver cancers. Emerging from the strategic pivot initiated from Stimunity, the company builds on high-level scientific expertise in cGAS/STING biology, mRNA technologies and hepatic immunity.
Bottleneck addressed: the programme must generate additional efficacy data to complement the proof-of-concept evidence already established, namely in ex vivo human liver tissue, in translational models closer to humans, and through the evaluation of product administration safety in primates, in order to prepare a future financing round.
MSInsight
MSInsight develops MSIcare, a genomic diagnostic software solution based on next-generation sequencing and artificial intelligence. MSIcare aims to improve the detection of microsatellite instability (MSI), a key biomarker for guiding certain immunotherapies and identifying hereditary cancer predisposition syndromes.
Bottleneck addressed: the project must demonstrate the robustness of MSIcare across several NGS platforms, panels and sequencing environments, strengthen the IVDR dossier and structure the clinical and health-economic elements required for market access and reimbursement.
One Biosciences
One Biosciences develops OneMap™, a tumour profiling solution combining single-cell technologies and artificial intelligence. Designed with and for oncologists, OneMap™ aims to generate, from tumour biopsies, actionable molecular information on the tumour and its microenvironment within timelines compatible with therapeutic decision-making.
Bottleneck addressed: demonstrating that single-cell technologies can move from primarily R&D use into clinical and industrial applications, in particular to support biomarker discovery, patient stratification and the development of future companion diagnostics. PSCC support should contribute to an initial clinical demonstration of the added value of this technology, paving the way for multiple clinical applications.
PEP-Therapy
PEP-Therapy develops IDDT, an innovative intracellular delivery platform enabling previously difficult-to-access targets to be addressed with different types of active agents, including peptides, proteins, antibodies and nucleic acids. Its clinical candidate PEP-010 is being evaluated in advanced solid tumours and serves as a technology demonstrator.
Bottleneck addressed: moving from a platform validated on an internal asset to a technology that is industrialisable and suitable for partnering. The project must generate robust proofs of concept on the applicability, performance and reproducibility of the platform, particularly around the internalisation, endosomal escape and intracellular biological activity issues expected by pharmaceutical partners.
Recobia Therapeutics
Recobia Therapeutics develops RecoGel, a first-in-class hydrogel platform designed to enable the subcutaneous administration of complex biological agents, including monoclonal antibodies and antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs). This approach could improve the patient pathway, reduce the burden on hospitals and create new lifecycle management opportunities for cancer treatments.
Bottleneck addressed: validating the long-term biocompatibility, controlled biodegradation and pharmacokinetic profile of the platform at clinically relevant volumes. These data should help bring a first ADC formulated with the hydrogel closer to a clinic-ready stage, prepare the non-clinical package and strengthen discussions with pharmaceutical partners and Series A investors.
Skymab Biotherapeutics
Skymab Biotherapeutics develops ADCs (antibody-drug conjugates) targeting G protein-coupled receptors, a class of targets that is highly validated in oncology but still underexploited by ADC technologies. The company combines differentiated target selection, a proprietary linker-payload platform and a strategy designed to rapidly generate preclinical and clinical proofs of concept.
Bottleneck addressed: accessing patient samples and costly but essential PDX models to confirm target expression, evaluate efficacy in more predictive models and finalise the design of the first clinical trial. The data generated should support a biomarker-based stratification strategy and increase the value of the project in a highly competitive ADC market.
Spice Bio
Spice Bio is an emerging immuno-oncology project led by Alan J. Korman, PhD, FAIO, an international figure in the field of immune checkpoint inhibitors. The company aims to explore new immune checkpoints, particularly at the interface between endothelial cells and T cells, in order to extend the benefit of existing immunotherapies and open new combination strategies.
Bottleneck addressed: transforming a highly ambitious scientific vision into a structured NewCo capable of generating the first evidence on new checkpoint targets. PSCC support should facilitate access to an outstanding clinical and translational environment, tumour samples, mechanism-of-action studies, laboratory resources and industry partners.
TheraSonic
TheraSonic develops TheraOne, a robot-guided transcranial focused ultrasound medical device designed to temporarily and locally open the blood-brain barrier. This technology aims to improve drug delivery to the brain, with an initial application in neuro-oncology and brain metastases.
Bottleneck addressed: producing the preclinical large-animal evidence expected by investors and pharmaceutical partners, by demonstrating multifocal and volumetric delivery of large cancer biotherapies, such as ADCs, into the brain. The project must strengthen the industrial credibility of TheraOne while continuing its path towards the clinic.
A concrete tool supporting the ambition of Campus Grand Parc
The BOOST Grant is part of a broader vision: to make Campus Grand Parc a place where start-ups, researchers, clinicians, industry players, investors and technology platforms can work in close proximity to accelerate the transformation of research into concrete solutions for patients.
The establishment or anchoring of teams within the cluster is one of the selection criteria for the scheme. This dimension is essential: the financial support is not intended solely to fund an isolated milestone, but to strengthen the momentum of an integrated ecosystem in which companies can gain faster access to the right expertise, the right infrastructure and the right partners.
By supporting these 10 companies, the PSCC is affirming its role as a driving force for de-risking oncology innovation. The cluster does more than connect stakeholders: it structures an environment capable of identifying the critical needs of start-ups, mobilising appropriate resources and accelerating the steps that determine their scientific, clinical, industrial and economic development.
“The selected projects perfectly illustrate the PSCC’s mission: to support high-potential innovations, but also to create the concrete conditions for their scale-up. By combining targeted funding, scientific and clinical expertise, access to platforms, proximity to industry and a strong territorial anchor, we can strengthen the competitiveness of oncology innovation in France and Europe.” Benjamin Garel, Chief Executive Officer of the PSCC.