About Genopole
Genopole, founded in 1998, is the oldest French biocluster fully dedicated to biotechnology, genomics, cell and gene therapies as applied to healthcare, synthetic biology, bioproduction for food & agriculture, cosmetics and industry. It unites innovative high-tech life science companies, hospital, public and private research and higher education facilities in a single site in the south of Paris. Today, Genopole is a major actor in France’s research and a key element of its industrial landscape for biotech and genomics.
Our three main strategic areas are innovative therapeutics, computational genomics and bioeconomy. Genopole has a mature and fertile campus with over 2,600 staff members employed onsite by 63 biotech companies, 21 public research labs, and 29 cutting-edge shared- access technology platforms and university training courses (University of Evry Paris-Saclay).
Genopole is renowned for its scientific excellence in biotherapies. It is home to two French pioneers in the sector: Genethon for gene therapies in rare diseases, and I-Stem for the study of human pluripotent stem cells and their use in cell therapies. Indeed, Zolgensma, the first gene therapy to be approved for the childhood neuromuscular disease spinal muscular atrophy, was the fruit of research done at Genethon. The model developed by Genopole, that is, a biocluster uniting research, entrepreneurship, training and medicine, has shown its potential. An industrial biotherapies sector has come to be at Évry-Courcouronnes in partnership with national, European and global networks. Today, the value chain is complete, from R&D through to GMP production: initial and continuous training, academic research, technology transfer accelerator for rare and common diseases, businesses providing R&D and services, a stem cell bank under construction and a gene therapy production facility. The initial successes in clinical trials and the market arrival of the resulting therapeutic innovations for both rare and common diseases have laid a path for no less than a third revolution in medicine. Genopole and its actors are able and willing to accompany this revolution and bring answers to the challenges within it. They are helping to build a sector of biotherapies.
