The endowment fund
The endowment fund
The HyperCube Institute (IHC) is an independent French endowment fund (fonds de dotation). Our mission is to spread the use of Big Data and Data science (Data analytics) in specific domains of medical research where their use could have a significant impact :
- rare and orphan diseases where the lack of funding hinders research
- large public health matters, such as cancer, where studies involve extremely complex datasets and high volumes of data (genetic data for example)
The HyperCube Institute offers research partnerships with top-tier renowned institutions: doctors and researchers contribute the medical data required for the study as well as their expert knowledge of the disease under focus and the HyperCube Institute provides its expertise in Data Science.
Within less than 3 years, the Institute has secured research partnerships with 6 distinct entities:
- The European Georges Pompidou Hospital (HEGP): Chronic kidney disease and Porphyria (earlier diagnosis of the diseases)
- Gustave Roussy: Lung cancer (personalized treatments for improved patient prognosis)
- REMERA Association: Birth defects (why do certain foetus develop a congenital malformation?)
- Bichat Hospital: Imported Malaria (why do certain individuals develop an acute form of imported malaria?)
- Rett Syndrom Association: Study of environmental factors and their impacts on patient symptoms; How to better define patient treatment?
- Würzburg University & Pasteur Institute: Aspergillus (identification of immunodeprived patients at risk of contracting Aspergillus)
- EORTC: Acute Myeloid Leukemia (efficiency of a new type of chemotherapy)
IHC Achievements
Some of the research projects we are carrying out with our partners have already provided significant results:
With Gustave Roussy:
The IHC and Gustave Roussy research team has been selected three times to present its scientific works to major oncology conferences: the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) in 2014 in San Diego, the European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) in 2014 in Madrid and the European Cancer Congress (ECC) in 2015 in Vienna. Its research was awarded the best scientific poster prize at ESMO. The collaboration allowed to discover a gene signature which predicts in a robust way the survival rate of patients with early-detected lung cancer. This signature can be translated into a clinical test practically usable by doctors to detect patients with high risk of relapse which could benefit from an adjuvant therapy. This discovery has been patented at the European level.
With the European Georges Pompidou Hospital
The IHC and HEGP research team has been selecte by the jurys of 2 renowned american congresses to take part in:
- the American Society of Nephrology in San Diego in Novembre 2015 to present a scientific poster
- IEEE ICMLA (International Conference on Machine Learning and Applications) as a guest speaker and presenter of a scientific poster in Miami in December 2015
With REMERA (on two diseases for the time being):
- Cleft lips: Identification of an environmental and seasonal risk factor (micro-particles, pesticides), present in certain given regions of France (3rd district of Lyon, ...)
- Anencephaly: Identification of a link between the smaller height of the mother and an inceeased risk of contracting Anencephaly. Publication under review.
The IHC team relies on sponsorship to grow
IHC has already been active for close to three years thanks to the financial support of its principal sponsor: BearingPoint. Its team is today composed of 4 researchers specialized in bio-IT and bio-statistics including two BearingPoint datascientists detached to IHC as part of a skills sponsorship program.
The HyperCube Institute is looking for new sponsors to financially support its action and help sustain its growth by recruiting new researchers.
The sponsors benefit in return from:
- the exposure (media, reputation, brand image) of our scientific breakthroughs (IP, patenting, publications, press coverage and articles...)
- the events (scientific conferences, tradeshows, meetups between partners...) with the Institute and its partners
- the ability to take part in the Institute's skills sponsorship program