ArcoScreen: The Venture Leader Medtech facilitating accurate, cheaper, and faster drug discoveries

23.05.2022 08:30, Tracy Woodley

For the second consecutive year, the Venture Leaders Medtech will represent Swiss innovation in the United States. To select the 10 featured startups, a jury of professional investors and medtech experts reviewed 60 applications. These startups improve diagnostics, treatments, and well-being with innovative solutions that cover artificial intelligence, sensors, smart devices, and robotics. Allow us to introduce you to each of the Venture Leaders Medtech 2022 ahead of the June 2022 roadshow in Boston and Cambridge: Meet Margaux Duchamp, the CEO of ArcoScreen.

ArcoScreen is an Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) spin-off founded in July 2021. The startup has developed a new cell membrane receptor screening platform based on microfluidic readout systems and focusing on G Protein Coupled Receptors (GPCRs). ArcoScreen’s novel and unique patented assay is embedded in a microfluidic chip, called ArcoFlow, and provides a first-of-its-kind method for rapidly and accurately identifying drugs that target GPCRs directly on primary patient cells. This revolutionary technology leads to more accurate, cheaper, and faster drug discoveries.

Name: Margaux Duchamp
Location: Lausanne, Switzerland
Nationality: French
Graduated from: EPFL, PhD in Bioengineering (2020)
Job title: CEO and Co-founder of ArcoScreen SA
Number of employees: 4
Money raised: CHF 1.5 million
First touchpoint with Venturelab: Business Creation course in November 2019


Explain in one or two short sentences what your startup does and why. 
At ArcoScreen we provide a unique tool for pharmaceutical companies to discover new drugs directly using patient cells. Our technology could lead to a 50% failure rate decrease in stage II clinical trials, but more importantly, it opens the field for new drug targets to treat diseases like cancer, Alzheimer’s, or even cardiovascular conditions.

How and where did you come up with the idea for your startup?
Thamani Dahoun, my cofounder, saw the need for a novel biological assay that enables the screening of drugs targeting G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs) during her PhD thesis at EPFL. She thus developed the new assay on which ArcoScreen’s technology is based. Thamani recognized the throughput limits of her assay and reached out to me for the microfluidic integration. However, we only had the idea of creating a startup after we received a huge amount of interest in our technology from key scientific leaders.

What do you expect from the Venture Leaders roadshow, and how will it help you achieve your vision?
The Venture Leaders program will provide us with a huge boost for our internationalization, both in terms of market reach and financing. By introducing us to a network of international players in the pharmaceutical field, the Venture Leaders roadshow will enable ArcoScreen to jump to the next milestone. International partnerships will be a must for ArcoScreen, enabling us to thrive and raise global capital. The Venture Leaders program will be an important stepping stone for the closing of our seed financing round and will allow us to reach out to our first American clients.

How did you come up with the name of your startup? 
My cofounder started working on the idea that would become ArcoScreen with a Catalan colleague. In Spanish arco iris means rainbow, and ArcoScreen is a reference to the colors in our assay and screening process.

What is one thing not many people know about you? 
I do a lot of sailing, and most of my vacations involve sailing trips. My love of sailing began when I was around 12 years old and I participated twice in the French sailing championship. My best result was second place in the women’s race!

What was your dream job when you were a child? 
My dream job as a kid was archeologist. I was fascinated by ancient civilizations (the Egyptians, the Mayans) and attracted by the fact that this job allowed you to travel the world.

What is a topic you would like to learn more about and why? 
I would love to learn more about coding and programming. I believe it is one of the top skills to develop in the upcoming years, with the rise of the digitalization. 

How and where do you clear your mind? 
Sailing in large, open waters or hiking in the mountains allows me to clear my mind and come back to ArcoScreen fully regenerated and more efficient.

What is the most challenging aspect of being a founder? 
The most challenging (but also the most interesting) aspect of being a founder is the fact there is always something new to learn. We are always out of our comfort zone!

For more information and updates on ArcoScreen and the Venture Leaders Medtech 2022, follow #VLeadersMedtech on Twitter or on www.venture-leaders.ch/medtech.

The Venture Leaders Medtech program is organized by Venturelab and supported by EPF Lausanne, ETH Zurich, Hansjörg Wyss, Helbling Technik, Kellerhals Carrard, Paul Scherrer Institut, Swissnex Boston, Canton of Vaud, Canton of Zurich, and Venture Leader alumnus Dominik Lysek.