Here you can find information on the new partnerships and innovation projects at the UO.
An Anti Covid-19
Patent registered by the Institute of Organic and Analytical Chemistry
Following a screening of the National Chemical Library, and an in silico selection (collaboration with Dr S. F. Sousa Univ. Porto), Dr Vincent PARISSI, Research Director in Molecular Virology at the Fundamental Microbiology and Pathogenicity laboratory (MFP, University of Bordeaux, UMR 5234) identified promising hits against COVID-19 infection, a family of which was designed by Prof. Sylvain Routier's team at the Institute of Organic and Analytical Chemistry (ICOA, University of Orléans, UMR 7311).
This heterocyclic series proved to be modulable and active on a range of COVID-19 variants, including the most recent Omicron (collaboration with Dr. O. Delelis, ENS Paris Saclay, Dr. S. Gallois-Montbrun, I. Cochin and Dr. L. Meertens, IUH St Louis), with no decrease in efficacy, preventing the infection of human lung cells at low concentrations.
A patent application was filed in November 2021 and the SATT Aquitaine – within the scope of its mission to support innovation in public research – validated in May 2022 an investment of €464,000 for the technical and economic maturation of the project to enable the optimisation of the identified series and the validation of in vivo efficacy.
The Risk-Taking of the French Saver
This summer, the LÉO concluded a partnership convention with the fintech Yomoni under the aegis of the Louis Bachelier Institute. Its aim is to lead work on the themes of the choice of savings and portfolios among private individuals.
Yomoni is a savings management company founded in 2015 and the French leader in the field of robo-advisors. This fintech offers its clients a complete digital management of the client process, which goes from financial advising to the electronic signature of the mandate. Savers fill out a detailed form, on which an advisory algorithm is based to offer them a more or less risky allocation of their investments. The complete digitalisation of the relationship, as well as the use of index funds, allows the fintech to offer its clients management fees that are among the lowest on the market. The company, fortified by about 40 employees, manages 500 million euros of assets for the account of 34,000 clients. On a global scale, the market of robo-advisors is developing quickly, with an estimated USD 1 trillion in assets under management. The number of users should grow over 400 million from now until 2024 (Statista, 2020). The US, where the first fintech were founded (Wealthfront, Betterment, ...), is the first market in the field of robo-advising. The number of robo-advisors is growing rapidly in Europe and in Asia, carried by the growing digitalisation of financial services.
Two members of the LÉO, Béatrice Boulu-Reshef and Alexis Direr, as well as Sylvain Benoit of the University of Paris-Dauphine and Jérémy Dudek of the CREST and the Lab4Fin fintech are involved in a Research Initiative (IdR) entitled PREF (“Prise de Rique de l’Épargnant Français”, The Risk-Taking of the French Saver) and financed by the fintech. The subject takes place in a context of increased participation of savers in financial markets, promoted by the development of the pension savings scheme, by the presence of fiscal incentives for financial savings, and by the continuous decrease of interest rates. This opening up of private savings to financial markets is accompanied by an increased responsibility for savings and investment choices, which raises questions on the ability for savers to understand the products they invest in, to comprehend risks, to diversify their assets to minimise costs, or to hold their positions in case of a market decline. The IdR, whose team has just been strengthened by the recruitment of a doctoral student, aims at producing original and quality research on these issues. It will be supported by a detailed client database provided by the fintech.