Marc Antonini, CNRS research director at the Computer Science, Signals and Systems laboratory of Sophia Antipolis – I3S (CNRS-Université Côte d’Azur) is one of the four winners of the 2023 CNRS innovation medal.
Created around ten years ago, this distinction honors research from laboratories under the supervision of the CNRS which has led to significant innovations on the technological, economic, therapeutic and social levels. The medal will be presented to them on Tuesday, November 14.
Marc Antonini, using DNA to store data
CNRS research director at the Sophia Antipolis Computer Science, Signals and Systems Laboratory where he leads the MediaCoding team, Marc Antonini specializes in data compression, whether images, videos or 3D models. . His doctoral work was, for example, used for the JPEG 2000 standard, and his first work at the CNRS, in collaboration with the CNES, for one of the systems on board the Pléiades satellites (a pair of two optical Earth observation satellites). Author of thirteen patents, Marc Antonini has regularly collaborated with various manufacturers and co-founded the start-up Cintoo, dedicated to the capture and visualization of 3D point clouds.
Its activity has since shifted towards storage on synthetic DNA. Marc Antonini is thus at the head of the MoleculArXiv research program (PEPR), endowed with twenty million euros over seven years to develop this technology of the future, and participated in the European OligoArchive program. On this same theme, Marc Antonini co-founded the start-up PearCode and chairs the design of JPEG DNA, an image compression standard adapted to DNA.