Ville de Bou-Ismail

Daily Switzerland, November 27, 2017
The first two start-ups benefiting
StartLab infrastructures have been chosen
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Another prestigious award for Samir by Switzerland was announced today by the Swiss press in several national dailies. It is distinguished by the advisory board of Biopole to benefit from the StartLab infrastructure in the new Swiss Biopole. The advisory board has selected the first two start-ups (Haya theurapetics and another start-up) who will be renting the StartLab. I attached a publication of a Swiss daily with an interview with Samir.

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Link to Switzerland daily:

http://www.agefi.com/nc/quotidien-agefi/suisse/detail/edition/2017-11-27/article/biopole-les-dossiers-de-haya-therapeutics-sur-linsuffisance-cardiaque-et- de-gnubiotics-in-the-substituent-of-milk-465695.html? pageUID = 43149 & issueUID = 1442 & cHash = 9300f16c620e6a47c4eb14e17a66993a

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StartLab provides leverage to HaYa Therapeutics projects

HaYa Therapeutics as one of two startups selected for StartLab wants to treat heart failure at its root.
"The current therapies focus on the symptoms of the deficiencies, not the root causes of the disease at the cellular and molecular level," says its founder Samir Ounzain, also distinguished in the final MassChallenge 2017.

The treatment that he is developing makes it possible to directly target the heart, the process of fibrosis by exploiting the dark matter of our genome. HaYa Therapeutics has discovered that there is a specific regulator for this heart fibrosis, a long non-coding RNA (ribonucleic acid) (previously referred to as junk DNA, due to the fact that it does not encode proteins), called Wisper. This represents the next generation of targeted RNA-based therapies.

The goal is to bring this discovery from the lab to patients to monitor and treat patients with heart failure. In an animal model, this treatment made it possible to reduce fibrosis after a myocardial infarction, thereby improving the function of the heart.

"StartLab provides an excellent environment to launch our project and operations, both in terms of infrastructure and through the StartLab network. We currently have very strong academic collaborations both at the CHUV (from which HaYa Therapeutics has evolved) and at the international level, which we use first and foremost. But the excellent infrastructure provided by the StartLab allows us to also be part of our R & D efforts here, "says Samir Ounzain. - (CA