Labex ImmuNE
- Understand the immune system and its dysfunctions, and harness its potential for health
- Foster interdisciplinary collaboration within Nantes Université,
- Improve teaching opportunities
- Communicate with the public
- Accelerate clinical applications
- Stimulate economic growth in the field of immunology and immunotherapy at Nantes Université
Labex ImmuNE comprises 14 core teams from the CR2TI, CRCI²NA and INCIT research units. These teams bring together scientists with complementary expertise in immunology and immunotherapy across various medical contexts, including oncology, transplantation, chronic inflammatory diseases and infection. These teams are recognised for their dynamic technology transfer capabilities because they have created seven biotech start-ups and filed 62 patents over the last five years. They are equally known for their clinical development capacity because they supported 22 phase I/II trials through competitive academic calls over the same period. These capabilities are derived from their upstream research.
Laboratories involved:
- CR2TI – Centre for Research in Transplantation and Translational Immunology - UMR1064 CR2TI
- INCIT – Immunology and New Concepts in Immunotherapy - UMR1302 INCIT
- CRCI2NA – Nantes-Angers Cancer and Immunology Research Centre - UMR1307 CRCI²NA
Contact
Labex ImmuNE’s ambition is to transform the immunology research community at Nantes Université by uniting forces around shared strategic objectives, paving the way for the creation of an Institute of Immunology and Immunotherapy. This will establish Nantes University as a national and international leader in immunology and immunotherapy. The founding of such an institute would increase the discipline’s overall visibility and attractiveness, while facilitating partnerships, industrial sponsorship and clinical developments.
Labex ImmuNE also aims to stimulate student interest in the immunological sciences and to nurture highly qualified researchers who can drive future innovations in immunology. The programme is also fully in line with NExT’s Health of the Future roadmap, the objectives of the Pays de la Loire Region 2022–2028 Health Plan, and the France 2030 national plan.
The ImmuNE programme aims to support new interdisciplinary collaborative research projects, train the next generation of scientists, and develop communication strategies within the discipline.
One of the programme’s main aims is to encourage new transdisciplinary and interdisciplinary initiatives between ImmuNE’s core teams and other teams and/or scientists at Nantes Université with whom they are likely to collaborate, with the aim of strengthening fundamental research and exploring new frontiers. Research projects will be funded through competitive calls for proposals from Nantes Université.
Labex ImmuNE will work closely with I3 programme to provide an attractive, high-performance training environment for students.
Finally, Labex ImmuNE will develop its communications to facilitate international partnerships, raise the programme’s profile and improve public understanding of immunology research.
Labex ImmuNE is the Nantes extension of Labex IGO (Immunotherapy Graft Oncology, or Immunotherapies Grand Ouest), which was certified by the ANR in 2012 following its selection as part of the ‘Laboratories of Excellence’ call for projects under the Investments for the Future Programme. This programme ended on 31 December 2024. Labex IGO brought together five research units (UMR1064, UMR1227, UMR1236, UMR1302 and UMR1307) across western France (in Nantes, Angers, Rennes and Brest), with the aims of promoting ambitious research programmes in immunology and developing innovative immunotherapies. Attracting talented scientists and enabling the formation of new research teams with complementary expertise in areas such as inflammatory and infectious diseases has led to significant developments in the field. Labex IGO has thus contributed to unifying and developing immunology and immunotherapy research at Nantes Université, thereby increasing its national and international visibility.
- Conference - Single Cell Conference Nantes 2025 - Nantes - 7&8 October 2025
Key dates
- 28 April 2025: launch of a call for projects for Early Career Researchers.
- September 2025: start of selected projects.
- End of 2025: launch of a call for projects for strategic projects.
- September 2026: start of selected projects.
- April 2027: launch of a second call for projects for Early Career Researchers.
- September 2027: start of selected projects.
