Interview with Dr Marina Colella, Deputy Director and Head of Medical Staff at I-Motion, and Saadane Kirouani, Deputy Director and Head of Non-Medical Staff.
What is the mission of the I-Motion platforms?
S.K. The Institute of Myology wanted to set up facilities capable of testing treatments under the best conditions by creating two integrated platforms within hospitals, with dedicated teams and premises, for patients: I-Motion Pediatrics at Trousseau Hospital and I-Motion Adults at Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital. These trials are aimed at patients with often serious diseases that progress at varying rates. The objective is therefore to act early, with a high level of quality and safety.
M.C. I-Motion Pediatrics was created first, in 2015, to accelerate the arrival of innovative therapies for young patients and thus provide a responsive, specialised structure for conducting clinical trials with French or foreign sponsors. From the outset, the platform has relied on a collective dynamic between AP-HP, AFM-Téléthon, Sorbonne University and the Institute of Myology. Attached to Professor Vialle’s orthopaedic surgery department at Trousseau Hospital, this structure makes it possible to host complex, often international trials in a suitable paediatric environment.
What conditions do you treat and in what trials?
M.C. We monitor and treat various conditions, including Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) and infantile spinalmuscular atrophy (SMA). A gene therapy study in DMD, coordinated by the Généthon laboratory, is expected to begin itspivotal phase at the end of 2025, and we are eager to participate.
S.K. This year, we participated in around 40 trials, focusing on innovative therapies such as gene therapy, but also more traditional pharmacological therapies for diseases such as Becker muscular dystrophy, FKRP-related limb-girdle muscular dystrophy and myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1). We also collaborate with the hospital’s neurology, intensive care and internal medicine departments to monitor patients with inflammatory myopathies, myasthenia gravis and neuropathies in clinical trials.
What are your prospects?
M.C. In pediatrics, we will continue to expand the LAMA2 registry, a two-year national multicentre observational project launched in 2024, which aims to better characterise the disease and prepare for future therapeutic trials. We hope that it will provide useful data for the identification of biomarkers.
S.K. On the adult side, we will continue to implement around fifteen new protocols, which will allow us to maintain a relatively constant level of activity.
Further details on ongoing trials at the Institute
