Michel Soussaline splits his time between an operating theatre and the less antiseptic offices of a small business in Paris. A cancer surgeon, Mr Soussaline has gone part-time to help his scientist wife, Françoise, establish Imstar, a start-up focused on imaging equipment that tracks gene abnormalities.

As a young French company serving the biotechnology sector, Imstar has had to fight to survive in a hostile environment for growing businesses.