(François Maillot, Jacques Morel)
MAbs now cover all medical specialties: cancer, inflammatory diseases, as well as metabolic, infectious, and degenerative diseases. In agreement with the LabEx motto “from bench to bedside and from bedside to bench”, scientific questions and practical challenges often overlap, as exemplified by drug resistance, development of anti-drug antibodies (ADA), occurrence of treatment-associated autoimmune diseases, and much more. As part of its mission, the LabEx will keep supporting projects at the interface between basic and clinical research. CDI2 will involve all academic hospitals from its perimeter, and include medical specialties that extensively use monoclonal antibodies. Projects developed in the four KQs will be proposed for clinical applications, and conversely, ancillary studies will be set up to explore basic scientific questions. MAbImprove will provide financial support to bio-clinical research projects focused on MAbs, and co-funded by research calls from the university hospitals. In addition, teaching hospitals and their research direction could provide help: (1) to facilitate the interaction between clinicians and researchers or start-ups, (2) to provide help in setting up interface projects, (3) to provide facilities, such as clinical investigation centers or biobanks. Furthermore, clinical research projects in response to French national and European calls will also be encouraged and facilitated by CDI2.