The READNA consortium, coordinated by the director of the CNAG Ivo Gut, has been awarded with the “Stars of Europe” prize by the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research. This award recognizes 12 successful projects led by French research teams and funded by the EU within the 7th Framework Programme (FP7).

This award was presented during the French Horizon 2020 launch event on 16th December 2013 at the Sorbonne, Paris, in the presence of the French Minister for Higher Education and Research, Ms. Geneviève Fioraso, the General Director of Research and Innovation of the European Commission, M. Robert Jan Smits, the European Commissioner for Education, Culture, Multilingualism and Youth Androulla Vassiliu and the Lithuanian Minister for Education and Science Mr. Dainius Pavalkis.

Developing new breakthrough DNA sequencing technologies
The READNA consortium (REvolutionary Approaches and Devices for Nucleic Acid analysis) was formed by 19 partners from 7 countries of the European Community from academia and industry. The main goal was to develop methods to accelerate new breakthrough DNA sequencing technologies, enhance existing analysis methods, and advance nucleic analysis methods to the benefit of patients and society.

The project, which ran from 1st of June 2008 to 30th November 2012, was coordinated by Ivo Gut, first at the Centre National de Genotypage (CNG), a component of the Institut Génomique of the CEA, where he was Head of Technology Development and Associate Director and then at the CNAG, from January 2010.

“READNA has delivered many new technologies for nucleic acid analysis that are being adopted not only by the research community, but also by industry. These tools will deliver improvements in many sectors and will ultimately result in better quality of life” says Ivo Gut.

READNA met and far exceeded its main objectives proposed at the beginning of the project. The consortium generated more than 116 publications, including 10% that were published in high impact journals such as Nature and Science. READNA partners presented their research at more than 160 international conferences. Finally, over 20 patents have been made and several patent applications have been filed since the end of the project at the end of 2012. The project financed the creation of 30 jobs and 3 spin-off companies that are involved in commercialising READNA results that created another 15 jobs, in addition the project allowed 9 Researchers to obtain their PhD theses’. The project was not only dedicated to scientific excellence but also to increasing employment and the standard of education in Europe.

Photo of Ivo Gut with the award
© MESR / XR Pictures