The CALYM call for projects: an investment of one million euros for an innovative strategic project in the field of lymphoma
In 2021, the Institut Carnot CALYM initiated an unprecedented 1 million euro call for projects, aiming to promote the emergence and the realization of a structuring program for future multi-partnered collaborations. This undertaking will allow a competitive, state of the art, positioning of the academic research consortium to improve lymphoma and biomedical research in partnership with industrial partners. In July 2022, the DIAL project was the first awardee.
CALYM Director“The Carnot system is a unique instrument, a virtuous circle of investment by and for a community of academic actors allowing us to focus economic recovery in the service of biomedical progress. Through the induced growth and the professionalization of our teams, the Carnot funding allows us today to make structuring investments, very consequent, real levers for partnership research in France. Our entrepreneurial vision of the Carnot program includes a return on investment in the medium term for the winning project, which will be entirely returned to our community in order to repeat the genesis of innovative programs for the benefit of patients.»
DIagnostic Assistance of Lymphoma, the winner of the call for CALYM projects
Led by Prof. Pierre Brousset (CHU Toulouse) and Prof. Philippe Gaulard (CHU Créteil), this Artificial Intelligence (AI) project is based on the complementary expertise of seven academic research teams from French centers (IUCT-Oncopole, Mondor Institute for Biomedical Research, Hospices Civils de Lyon, University of Toulouse / IRIT, Toulouse University Hospital / CRCT, Dijon University Hospital / LYMPHOPATH, CIRI / Inserm), Labex Toucan, Roche, and the Institut Carnot CALYM.
DIAL focuses on diffuse large B-cell lymphomas and peripheral T-cell lymphomas through two objectives: the development of a platform for lymphoma diagnosis, based on machine learning algorithms, an innovative solution, as well as the prediction of the prognosis of response to treatments and the discovery of new biomarkers and therapeutic targets.
To improve diagnostics and classification accuracy of lymphomas, the DIAL project will also provide a unique data collection, accessible to the entire consortium.
Head of the anatomopathology department (University Cancer Institute of Toulouse - Oncopole), and principal investigator of the DIAL project“Thanks to DIAL, we will design original solutions dedicated to the qualitative analysis of histopathological images for diagnosis and classification purposes based on machine learning algorithms, and to the development of multimodal models for prognosis prediction and biomarkers discovery. The DIAL platform will thus provide a robust tool to improve the accuracy of lymphoma classification. This platform will also serve as a “central pathology review platform” for clinical trials on lymphomas. A real technological and medical breakthrough in medical research on lymphoma. »
Over the past three years, the CALYM institute has made significant structural investments in the field of big data and its use ofAI (including the Lymphoma Data Hub). For Bertrand Nadel, « CALYM’s support for a large-scale AI project like DIAL is a major success in our ability to anticipate the consortium’s needs« .
CALYM and its members will have access to the DIAL diagnostic assistance platform. A major objective of the DIAL project is to provide a commercial solution which is aimed to be available within 36 months. The generated return on investment initiates a virtuous circle that will lead to other innovative projects in the CALYM consortium.
