About - Strok@lliance - ABOUT STROK@LLIANCE

New cutting-egde labs for preclinical Stroke research

In 2024, ETAP-Lab has inaugurated its new building on the Jules Horowitz campus, marking a new stage in its development. This new space will enable STROK@LLIANCE to strengthen its research capacity, notably through the development of in vitro studies and the extension of its skills to other brain pathologies.

With a public-private partnership and the ongoing support of local partners such as the University of Caen Normandie, Caen la Mer and the Normandy Region, STROK@LLIANCE offers cutting-edge services meeting the high standards of the pharmaceutical industry.

We have invested in these new facilities in 2024 to support preclinical Stroke research in France and to meet customers’ needs. With 700m² of installations, including 400m² of laboratories with modern equipments, we are able to triple neurology research capacity.

This site remains at the heart of biomedical research and innovation on a site of scientific excellence: the CYCERON center. Thanks to its in-depth experience in preclinical pharmacology and the integration of innovations from the PhIND laboratory, ETAP-Lab is able to put its unique know-how to work for its customers.

With its new building and expansion plans, STROK@LLIANCE is well positioned to become a European leader in preclinical stroke research.

The STROK@LLIANCE story began in 2017 as a result of a chance encounter between Pierre Bourgogne (co-founder and former Chairman of ETAP-Lab) and Professor Denis Vivien (Head of PhIND, UMR-S U1237 INSERM/EFS/University of Caen Normandy) in the course of a consultation on the Caen Science Park Plateau Nord.

At the time, ETAP-Lab had five years of experience in the stroke field, and had managed more than 20 studies for private pharmaceutical industry clients. ETAP-Lab was very capable of managing and performing high-quality grade studies (including complex multisite imaging), but senior management was well aware of the need for stronger scientific input and a broader model portfolio to play a significant role in the field of preclinical stroke.

It was clear from the outset that Denis Vivien was willing to offer his laboratory’s expertise and know-how to the pharmaceutical industry, in a bid to accelerate innovative drug development from bench-to-bedside.

Nicolas Violle (CEO, ETAP-Lab) came up with an innovative model for collaboration between ETAP-Lab and the University of Caen Normandy. In this model, ETAP-Lab staff perform preclinical studies at the University Biological Resources Center (CURB), where they have exclusive access to certain experimental facilities. This allows both transfer of knowledge from PhIND’s stroke experts and implementation of quality-controlled processes. It also provides access to imaging facilities from CYCERON – an imagery platform directly connected to the CURB. STROK@LLIANCE was born.

“Using highly skilled specialists, STROK@LLIANCE is now able to manage projects for the pharmaceutical industry, ensuring that both expertise and creativity are brought into play in providing high-level animal studies in a quality-controlled environment. By taking full advantage of the CYCERON facilities, STROK@LLIANCE accesses state-of-the-art technology and offers fine-tuned behavioral studies.”
N. Violle

ETAP-LAB

CRO with 25 years’ experience in preclinical pharmacology
Dedicated team and project managers headed by Dr. Nicolas Violle
Quality, transparency and data traceability
Deadline compliance and regular reports
Confidentiality

ESRP

Academic laboratory committed to stroke science
Headed by the internationally renowned scientist Pr. Denis Vivien
Around 30 scientific publications per year
Collaboration with neurologists in pursuit of a translational vision
Development of innovative stroke models

STROK@LLIANCE

The only CRO 100% dedicated to preclinical stroke research
The best of academic and private expertise within a single service

SCIENTIFIC ADVISORY BOARD

The STROK@LLIANCE Scientific Advisory Board is coordinated by a renowned scientist in the field: Professor Denis Vivien

Each protocol is discussed with Pr. Vivien, Dr. Orset and Dr. Violle, together with the sponsor, to:

1

Select the most appropriate stroke model
2

Customize experimental design
3

Interpret data

Denis Vivien Professor of Cell Biology, Hospital Practitioner and Professor senior

Denis Vivien is Professor of Cell Biology, Hospital Practitioner (Caen-Normandie Univ. Medical Center – Department of Clinical Research) and a Senior Professor at the Institut Universitaire de France. He leads the Physiopathology and Imaging of Neurological Disorders (PhIND) laboratory (UMR-S U1237, INSERM/EFS/Caen-Normandie Univ.). He was highly instrumental in gaining understanding of the function of serine proteases in controlling molecular and cellular events occurring during ischemic stroke. In 2005, he discovered the influence of serine proteases on NMDA glutamatergic signaling and neurotoxicity. His research projects now extend to the role of serine proteases in homeostatic control of the neurovascular unit. With the objective of getting closer and closer to human pathology, he is committed to developing preclinical translational models alongside innovative tools for diagnostic and therapeutic applications. He has co-authored more than 150 scientific publications and several patents in the field.

Cyrille Orset Assistant Professor

Cyrille Orset is Assistant Professor at the University of Caen-Normandy, in the PhIND laboratory. He holds a PhD (2005) from the Neuropharmacology and Neurochemistry laboratory headed by Pr. Bernard Renaud (INSERM U512, Lyon, France). His PhD training focused on the effect of mild hypoxia on basal ganglia, followed by a postdoc (2005-2012) in Pr. Vivien’s laboratory, where he worked on ischemic stroke and the effects of the tPA in the neurovascular unit. There, he successfully created and developed a translational model of stroke in the rodent and non-human primate that mimics human physiopathology more closely. Much of Dr. Orset’s ongoing research has focused on using experimental stroke models to examine the role of tPA in neuro-vascular coupling. He has co-authored more than 20 scientific publications and several patents in the field.

Nicolas Violle CEO of ETAP-Lab and founding member of Strok@lliance

Nicolas Violle is CEO at ETAP-Lab and a founding member of STROK@LLIANCE. He holds a PhD in Biology; this training focused on methodologies for behavioral assessment of anxiety and stress in rodents (Biology of Behavior Laboratory, Nancy). His next role was as Study Manager at ETAP-Lab in 2009, where he headed more than 70 preclinical studies in Neuroscience, including implementation of a thrombo-embolic stroke model and validation of an original neuroscore in rats. Since 2004, he has been at the head of ETAP-Lab and has also gained a Master’s in Business Management. He has extensive expertise in preclinical study management for the industry, and protocol design.

OUR VALUES

Ethics

Full compliance with 3R principles (Reduction, Refinement, Replacement)

Continuous training and awareness programs for technical staff

ETAP-Lab is a member of the CELMEA Ethics Committee:

Ethical evaluation of protocols from other laboratories
Thinktank on animal welfare and good practice in experimental sciences

Quality

Data traceability and metrology → quality management

Data recording at each step of the study

Video recording for behavioral data
Automated video-tracking of rodent behaviors when possible
Digitalized pictures of histological slices
Animal follow-up (weight, hydric and food consumption, etc.)
Product and treatment preparation
Individual animal manipulation at each step (treatment time, volume and dose, surgery parameters, etc.)

Data quality control

Archiving of data, samples and slices

Systematic inclusion of reference-drug treated group as internal standard

Blinded protocol design

An ethological perspective

Good practice in ethology, for increased translational value

Respectful of chronobiology

Maintenance of animals under reversed dark/light cycle
Time of the treatments and treatment regimen

Clinical approach to animal observation

General behavior and welfare of the animals
Observation of human-like symptoms where possible

OUR FACILITIES

STROK@LLIANCE is based in Caen (France).

Our offices are within the Health Innovation and Research Center, bringing service and biotech companies together on a single site

STROK@LLIANCE has dedicated controlled-access facilities inside the University Biological Resource Center (CURB) including:

Conventional and GMO husbandries for rodents (mice and rats)

STROK@LLIANCE can access the CYCERON imagery facilities – a shared technological platform

Strok@lliance doppler speckle stroke mice

PUBLICATIONS

Most of these publications issue from PhIND unit research.

Gaberel, T., Gakuba, C., Hebert, M., Montagne, A., Agin, V., Rubio, M., et al. (2013a). Intracerebral hematomas disappear on T2*-weighted images during normobaric oxygen therapy. Stroke, 44 :3482-3489.
Gaberel, T., Macrez, R., Gauberti, M., Montagne, A., Hebert, M., Petersen, K. U., et al. (2013b). Immunotherapy blocking the tissue plasminogen activator-dependent activation of N-methyl-D-aspartate glutamate receptors improves hemorrhagic stroke outcome. Neuropharmacology, 67:267-271.
Gaberel, T., Montagne, A., Lesept, F., Gauberti, M., Lemarchand, E., Orset, C., et al. (2014). Urokinase versus Alteplase for intraventricular hemorrhage fibrinolysis. Neuropharmacology, 85:158-165.
Le Behot, A., Gauberti, M., Martinez De Lizarrondo, S., Montagne, A., Lemarchand, E., Repesse, Y., Guillou, S., Denis, C.V., Maubert, E., Orset, C., Vivien, D. (2014) GpIbα-VWF blockade restores vessel patency by dissolving platelet aggregates formed under very high shear rate in mice. Blood. 123:3354-63.
Orset, C., Macrez, R., Young, A. R., Panthou, D., Angles-Cano, E., Maubert, E., et al. (2007). Mouse model of in situ thromboembolic stroke and reperfusion. Stroke, 38:2771-2778.
Orset, C., Haelewyn, B., Allan, S. M., Ansar, S., Campos, F., Cho, T. H., et al (2016). Efficacy of Alteplase in a Mouse Model of Acute Ischemic Stroke. Stroke, 47:1312-1318.
Orset, C., Haelewyn, B., Vivien, K., Vivien, D., Young, A.R. (2010) Rodent Models of Thromboembolic Stroke. In Neuromethods, 47:55-70.
Parent, M., Boudier, A., Perrin, J., Vigneron, C., Maincent, P., Violle, N., et al (2015). In situ microparticles loaded with S-nitrosoglutathione protect from stroke. PloS one, 10: e0144659.

New cutting-egde labs for preclinical Stroke research