Unleashing organelles to reinvent medicine: the Oria Bioscience revolution

Meeting with Alexandre Santinho, co-founder and CEO of Oria Bioscience, a French startup that aims to open the cellular “black box” thanks to a unique microfluidic technology.

By isolating and purifying organelles, these tiny intracellular factories often involved in neurodegenerative diseases, Oria offers the pharmaceutical industry unprecedented access to targets that were previously unattainable. An advance that could accelerate the development of new drugs for Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and many other pathologies.

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Can you introduce yourself and explain what Oria Bioscience does?

Alexandre Santinho:

“Hello, my name is Alexandre Santinho, I am the CEO and co-founder of Oria Bioscience. At Oria, we are experts in organelles: these are small compartments inside cells that produce energy, recycle it or generate matter.
In neurodegenerative diseases, we see that these organelles are dysfunctional. To be able to study them, we have developed a microfluidic technology that makes it possible to open cells, release organelles and produce purified fractions. We then bring these organelles directly to the screening platforms of pharmaceutical manufacturers.
Thanks to these purified compartments, our partners can develop new therapies, in particular for Parkinson's or Alzheimer's disease.”

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Why is targeting organelles so important in brain diseases?

Alexandre Santinho:

“In neurodegenerative diseases, we see more and more organelles that malfunction. Mitochondria and lysosomes are particularly disturbed, although they play a key role in energy production, the degradation of cellular waste and the management of proteins.
The problem is that the cell is a black box: these organelles are extremely small and fragile, making it very difficult to extract and study them. Our technology makes it possible to open cells without destroying them, to release organelles and to supply millions of them in purified bottles to manufacturers. This opens up access to essential but hitherto inaccessible biological targets.”

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What is the impact of this technology for the development of new drugs?

Alexandre Santinho:

“By providing purified organelles on a large scale, we enable manufacturers to test their drug candidates directly on dysfunctional organelles. This can accelerate the development of therapies for Parkinson's, Alzheimer's, and other neurodegenerative conditions.
Our ambition is to contribute to the emergence of new therapeutic approaches by finally giving access to these intracellular compartments, at high speed and in a reliable manner.”

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What does the name of your company, Oria Bioscience, mean?

Alexandre Santinho:

“We chose “Oria” as a reference to Organelle Innovation and Access. Our vision is really to release organelles, to change the paradigm and to allow our customers to finally work on these targets at high speed and with reliability.
“Bioscience” is singular in our name, even though we actually use a lot of different technologies.”

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The bonus question: Would you rather live 50 years with a brain twice as good, or 100 years with your current brain?

Alexandre Santinho:

‍“I prefer to live 50 years with a brain that is twice as efficient. With a more efficient brain, we could provide new solutions and respond to major societal challenges. I deeply believe in the power of science, and I think that a better brain would allow you to create more and have more impact.”

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