DEPIXUS

Their core work

DEPIXUS is a Paris-based deep-tech SME developing electronic devices for single-molecule nucleic acid analysis, using CMOS and MEMS semiconductor fabrication to build chip-based DNA and RNA sequencing platforms. Their core technology enables complete genomic and epigenomic analysis — including detection of epigenetic marks such as methylation — at ultra-high throughput and at the single-molecule level. Rather than being a service lab or a research group, they are a product company building proprietary sequencing hardware that competes in the next-generation genomics instrumentation space. Their H2020 work followed the classic deep-tech commercialization path: a Phase 1 feasibility grant to validate the concept, then a €2M Phase 2 grant to develop and bring the technology to market readiness.

What they specialise in

How they've shifted over time

DEPIXUS entered H2020 in 2016 with a Phase 1 feasibility study on nucleic acid analysis — at that stage the project carried no descriptive keywords, reflecting an early-concept validation exercise. By 2018, when they secured Phase 2 funding, the technology had crystallized into a clearly defined stack: CMOS and MEMS hardware, single-molecule detection, RNA and DNA sequencing, and epigenetics. The evolution is less about a change in direction and more about a maturation from proof-of-concept to a defined, multi-capability product — the focus narrowed and deepened rather than broadened.

DEPIXUS is on a product commercialization trajectory — their Phase 2 grant ends in 2021, which typically marks the transition to private fundraising and early sales, so future collaboration is most likely on application validation, clinical use-case pilots, or integration partnerships rather than further basic R&D.

How they like to work

DEPIXUS operates exclusively as an independent project coordinator and has never appeared as a consortium partner in the H2020 data — both of their grants are SME Instrument awards, which are by design solo instruments requiring no consortium. This tells you they are a self-contained technology developer, not a team-player by habit. A future partner should expect to work with them in a bilateral or integrator relationship — DEPIXUS brings the core sequencing platform, the partner brings an application domain or distribution channel.

DEPIXUS has zero recorded consortium partners in H2020, reflecting the solo nature of SME Instrument grants rather than deliberate isolation. Their operational network — customers, investors, academic collaborators — is not visible in this dataset and would need to be verified through company filings or publications.

What sets them apart

DEPIXUS occupies a rare intersection: semiconductor engineering (CMOS, MEMS) applied to single-molecule genomics, which places them in a small global club of companies building chip-native sequencing hardware rather than adapting optical or flow-cell platforms. What makes them distinctive for a consortium builder is that they bring both the device physics and the genomics application expertise in one SME package — they are not a chip foundry that needs a bioinformatics partner to make sense of data, nor a genomics lab that outsources its hardware. For businesses in diagnostics, precision medicine, or agricultural genomics, they represent a potential technology licensor or OEM hardware supplier rather than a typical research partner.

Highlights from their portfolio

• CONAN II
  At €2,046,320 this is one of the largest SME Instrument Phase 2 grants in the nano/genomics space, and its keyword profile — CMOS, MEMS, single-molecule, epigenetics — maps to a genuinely differentiated sequencing platform with commercial potential.
• CONAN
  The Phase 1 grant (€50,000) that validated the CONAN concept in 2016 is notable as the origin point of a coherent two-stage commercialization strategy, demonstrating disciplined use of the SME Instrument pathway.