A university that incubates new businesses

How did two students go from growing bacteria in a tomato sauce jar to running a company with $1.4 million in funding? Simple: At the Université de Sherbrooke (UdeS), any student idea with good potential is nurtured into a burgeoning enterprise.

From the start, you can sense the special bond that Patrick Vermette has with his two former students: “Jay and Vince are two very accomplished people. We’ve worked together for a long time, and I’m proud to see how far they’ve come.”

The Jay and Vince he is referring to are Jérémie Chaussé and Vincent-Daniel Girard, the young co-founders of AxCell Labs, a company that has taken the biomedical field by storm. Located on King Street in Sherbrooke, the company specializes in regenerative soft tissue implants and surgical membranes made from bacterial cellulose.

“The Université de Sherbrooke is an ideal place for startups, as it has built an extraordinary ecosystem that lets these seedlings grow.”

Patrick Vermette, Professor in the Department of Chemical and Biotechnology Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, UdeS

Digging up undergrad talent

Patrick Vermette started teaching Jérémie and Vincent back in 2019, when they were undergraduate students in biotechnology engineering. In their Reaction Systems and Bioreactors course, the two made a chance discovery that changed the trajectory of their university careers.

“We had to culture a bacterium as part of our term project,” Jérémie recalls.  “Vincent and I had waited too long to get a bacterial strain for our lab practical. So the day before, we put out a call on Facebook.”

Their improvisedplan paid off, as they were able to get their hands on four cultures of a kombucha SCOBY (for “symbiotic cultures of bacteria and yeast”), which they transported in tomato sauce jars. “We incubated them overnight on the kitchen counter at Vincent’s house,” Jérémie sayswith a smile.

The next day, they brought the bacterium they had isolated to the Faculty of Engineering to culture it with a fermenter, which was part of the assignment.

When the pair presented their results to the class, Patrick Vermette was inwardly delighted. He saw two ambitious students whose idea had great potential and who could use every resource at UdeS to create a business venture.

The professor then took Jérémie and Vincent under his wing as their mentor. “For the past few years, I’ve been letting my undergraduate students work on their own business projects,” he says.

Propagating good ideas right from the petri dish

Patrick Vermette—who also has a firm foothold in the business world—has provided personalized support to his two protégés. “Young people have some really great ideas, but they need coaching,” he says. “At UdeS, we help them avoid mistakes so they can get their business projects off to a strong start.”

Jérémie and Vincent got tailored advice on how to develop their product to attract the interest of potential investors. “I went over the legal and intellectual property aspects with them,” says Patrick Vermette.

Once the two undergradshad finished their programs, their professor also put them in touch with practising physicians. “Many papers in the scientific literature had described bacterial cellulose as a promising material, but no one had really used it yet in practical applications,” explains Jérémie.

Their product caught the attention of surgeons at the CHUS, such as Christian Iorio-Morin, who is also a professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS) at UdeS. An initialpossible application is in neurosurgery, for example, to reduce complications following a craniotomy thanks to bacterial cellulose inserted between metal implants and the skin to reduce friction.

While the two entrepreneurs believed in their idea, it was not yet a sure bet. Funding was a missing piece of the puzzle.

Seed money of $21,000 that grew into $1.4 million

In 2020, Jérémie and Vincent won $21,000 in grants through the Concours Créatek, a competition that provides entrepreneurial resources to students to boost the credibility of their business ventures.

This was a real springboard for our two entrepreneurs, as the seed money qualified them for a Mitacs grant worth $120,000.

In 2021, they began a research master’s program under the supervision of Patrick Vermette in order to  “take their initiative to the next level,” as this professor and engineer explains.

Their applied research project slowly but surely took shape. Jérémie and Vincent then collaborated with Santé Québec Estrie ─ CHUS (formerlythe CIUSSS de l’Estrie – CHUS) on the initial rounds of preclinical testing. Many months passed before they could demonstrate that their product was biocompatible.

In 2023, the duo won the regional “best student entrepreneur” award in the Défi OSEntreprendre competition. They also made use of every possible resource, including the ACET technology business incubator-accelerator and the Accompagnateur entrepreneurial Desjardins (AED) program.

They then reinvested every prize, scholarship, and grant that they won back into the business—a very sound and beneficial approach for this fledgling company that set up its first laboratory in 2024.

“They recently secured $1.4 million in funding, which is no small feat!” Patrick Vermette says proudly. This level of funding shows just how much people believe in their project. “We’ve had contributions from partners like Entreprendre Sherbrooke and AQC Capital,” explains Jérémie. “Plus a lot of ‘love money’ from friends and family.” A number of physicians have also invested in the company. “That has been very unexpected,” says Jérémie, who appreciates how the innovative aspect of their idea is generating so much interest.

A revolutionary surgical product

AxCell Labs currently employs four people. The company continues to work with clinicians at the CHUS, such as ENT specialist Dr. Julien Dallaire, also professor in the Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences (FMHS) at UdeS: “We’re working on a protocol to develop an innovative, low-cost product to repair perforated eardrums. I serve as the company’s medical consultant. It’s really stimulating to be involved with an innovation like this.”

AxCell Labs is also working on an injectable dermal filler. “We want to make this our flagship product,” says Jérémie.“This product adds volume to tissues, either for cosmetic surgery or clinical applications. Our initial results have been excellent and I would even say revolutionary."

“We could never have come this far without the support of a professor like Patrick Vermette.”

Jérémie Chaussé, UdeS graduate and co-founder of AxCell Labs

Patrick Vermette intends to continue encouraging this kind of student project:

“At UdeS, we have an office of the vice-president that helps with entrepreneurship, and this sends a really strong message. I believe that this is so important for our society, especially in engineering.”

And there are many more faculty members where Patrick Vermette came from at UdeS, a space that indeed provides fertile ground for more startups to flourish.