Treasurer

Nicolas Babault is co-founder and CEO of NAXIA Discovery, a technology platform dedicated to the discovery of therapeutic oligonucleotides and a spin-off from Philippe Barthélémy’s laboratory. He is also the founder of ELBA Discovery, a consulting company focused on the discovery and preclinical development of therapeutic molecules.

His career combines both academic and industrial experience. After completing his PhD at the Institut Pasteur, Nicolas moved to New York, where he spent more than seven years at Columbia University and the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. During this time, he developed strong expertise in structure-based drug design and biophysical validation applied to drug discovery.

Returning to France in 2018, he joined first a startup and later a clinical-stage biotech company, continuing to build and lead therapeutic discovery platforms across a variety of scientific and organizational environments at the interface of academia and industry.

In 2022, Nicolas began working in the field of therapeutic oligonucleotides and quickly became convinced of the tremendous potential of this modality. He soon questioned why oligonucleotide therapeutics remain underrepresented compared with their scientific and therapeutic promise, and why France lacked stronger collective efforts to develop and structure this unique field encompassing multiple classes of molecules and diverse mechanisms of action.

Driven by encounters with passionate scientists and industry leaders sharing the same vision, and by a common desire to structure the ecosystem, increase its visibility, and facilitate interactions between academia and industry, he contributed to the creation of the SFOT following the Oligonucleotide Day meeting.