MINATEC in figures

France began easing its Covid-19 restrictions almost two months ago. As we move into summer, life on the MINATEC campus is gradually returning to normal. Grenoble Institute of Technology-Phelma students will not return to campus until at least September. The school’s faculty and staff are back, however, but with a maximum of 40% of a given department’s personnel allowed at work the same day. The rationale behind this very gradual return is to give everyone an opportunity to get accustomed… More information

Researchers from Irig-CNRS and Thales published a breakthrough advance in spintronics in Nature. Rather than manipulating spin with a nanomagnet, they selected a ferroelectric material to do the job. Their novel approach uses 1,000 times less energy to write information. Like for ferromagnetic materials, the information stored is non-volatile (it is stored without the need for additional energy). The polarization state of the ferroelectric element can be read without depolarizing, eliminating one of the habitual problems with ferroelectric RAM. The… More information

Leti and IAB* started work on a Covid-19 vaccine. Their strategy is to attach SARS-CoV-2 messenger RNA to Lipidots®, the oil microdroplets designed at Leti. Lipidots® are the same size as the virus and have a strong affinity for the dendritic cells that trigger an immune response. And, because Lipidots® are very stable, they should reach their final destination intact. The mRNA strategy is already getting results in preclinical trials run by other organizations, like Moderna Therapeutics in the US.… More information

The Flash Arise project, funded by France’s national research agency (ANR), was set up to develop a solution for detecting SARS-Cov-2 droplets or aerosol in the air within a maximum of 30 minutes. Leti and the Institut Pasteur are engaged in the project, which kicked off in March. The partners’ hope to be able to bring a portable automated analyzer to hospitals and retirement homes by July 2021. The target solution will be built on an electrostatic air sample collector… More information