U-Fast: enabling faster response to sepsis

"Our idea began in our second year at school. The Entrepreneurial Innovation course encourages students to launch projects with a strong technological dimension, especially in deeptech," explains Raindu Adikarigethamel, a former student at the Institut d'Optique Graduate School. Over the course of four months, he met with researchers, visited laboratories and gained an understanding of the research ecosystem on the Saclay plateau. He was won over by a project led by Abdel El.Abded, a lecturer at the Light, Material and Interfaces Laboratory (LuMin - Univ. Paris-Saclay/ENS Paris-Saclay/National Centre for Scientific Research, CNRS/CentraleSupélec), and Dominique Fourmy, a researcher at the Laboratory of Biology and Applied Pharmacology (LBPA - Univ. Paris-Saclay/ENS Paris-Saclay/CNRS), who had already filed a patent for a key stage of their project.

In September 2023, along with fellow students Asyan Kessi and Simon Revranche from the Institut d'Optique's Entrepreneurial innovation programme (FIE), Raindu Adikarigethamel co-founded the start-up U-Fast. Stemming from research carried out at LuMin and LBPA, the company aims to develop rapid antibiotic susceptibility tests that can effectively identify which antibiotic to administer for sepsis. "The Institut d'Optique gave me the opportunity to launch this project, while still allowing time for my studies. Many start-ups have emerged from the FIE. It's one of the few schools on the Saclay plateau dedicated to entrepreneurship, focusing on really tangible subjects like deeptech. The ecosystem is strong, especially with partnerships between the Institut d'Optique, ENS Paris-Saclay and HEC. A lot of projects from researchers and PhD students are shelved because there's no student to carry them forward. And yet, most people have the potential to thrive in this field. That's another reason why U-Fast means so much to me," adds the co-founder.
 

Between optics and biology

U-Fast stands for Ultra-Fast Antibiotic Susceptibility Test. This antibiogram identifies the most appropriate antibiotics to administer to patients with serious infections or sepsis. "Our technology is significantly faster than anything currently on the market. Our results are available in just 15 minutes, compared to one or two days using conventional techniques," says Raindu Adikarigethamel proudly. This crucial time saving can help save lives by identifying a targeted treatment more quickly. "In cases of sepsis, you need to react very quickly, and doctors often don't have the time to work out which antibiotic will be most effective. As a result, they prescribe a cocktail of drugs, which unfortunately contributes to rising antibiotic resistance in the population. Our technology helps ease the pressure on hospitals while reducing treatment and testing costs," he adds.

The machine, similar in size to those normally used, sends an analysis report detailing the antibiotic resistance or susceptibility. "The benefit of our technology is that it requires very little genetic material. It can analyse multiple substances simultaneously in a very short time, whereas current methods involve first culturing bacteria in petri dishes and then testing medications one by one. U-Fast allows us to bypass that entire step," enthuses the co-founder.
 

Many competitions

Since the start of their venture, the co-founders have taken part in a string of competitions. In February 2024, they began preparing for the CNRS prematuration programme, which provides grants for projects originating in its laboratories. U-Fast secured 160,000 euros through this initiative. A further 150,000 euros was awarded under the France 2030 Recovery Plan, one of the aims of which is to combat sepsis. "All this funding goes into research and development. Part of it will be allocated to our second patent, which will be the cornerstone of our technology. It also enables us to hire a full-time post-doctoral researcher and define an action plan for the coming years," explains Raindu Adikarigethamel.

Today, U-Fast is based on the Saclay plateau and has been offered incubation by IncubAlliance, the public research incubator for the Paris-Saclay cluster. Since the start of the 2024/2025 academic year, the co-founders have taken different paths in a bid to specialise further. Asyan Kessi is studying optics and biology at the Institute of Bio-Medical Higher Education (IFSBM) of the Faculty of Medicine at Université Paris-Saclay. Simon Revranche has joined the École polytechnique de Lausanne (EPFL), where he is specialising in biology and optics, in preparation to become CTO of U-Fast. Raindu Adikarigethamel, meanwhile, has enrolled at HEC to take a more entrepreneurial approach, with the aim of joining the Station F incubator in the coming months.
 

Market launch in 2030

At present, the start-up's technology has a Technology Readiness Level (TRL) of 3 to 4. "It will reach maturity within two or three years, but only for the private market. To supply public hospitals, the technology has to be approved and reimbursed through social security, which will take several more months. We're planning for a full public market launch in 2030," explains the co-founder. In the meantime, U-Fast will continue to secure funding through the CNRS maturation programme to finalise its technology, complete technical validation and secure early purchase commitments.

For now, U-Fast is funded entirely through grants and competition awards to help it gradually raise the TRL of its technology. The start-up has not yet undertaken a funding round. "At some point, we'll have to take that step if we want to industrialise our product and sell it to as many hospitals as possible. We also need funding to grow our team, especially in marketing and sales. The team is currently mainly made up of highly technical profiles - students, post-doctoral students, researchers and interns," concludes Raindu Adikarigethamel.