Mickaël Tanter is Scientific Co-Founder of SonoMind, a Paris-based deeptech medical device startup developing non-invasive, focused ultrasound therapy for drug-resistant depression and psychiatric disorders. He is also a Director of Research at INSERM and a member of the French Academy of Sciences, with over 30 years of expertise in biomedical ultrasound imaging and therapy.

Tanter graduated from CentraleSupélec in 1994, earned a Master's in Physics from Université Paris VII, and completed his PhD at ESPCI under Mathias Fink, pioneering adaptive ultrasound focusing through the skull for non-invasive brain therapy. He became a CNRS researcher before being appointed INSERM Research Director in 2005 and founding the Institut de Physique pour la Médecine in Paris.

Tanter has co-founded six deep science companies since 1998, including SuperSonic Imagine, CardiaWave, and Iconeus, embodying a career-long mission to translate laboratory breakthroughs into clinical and commercial realities. He is a recipient of the ERC Advanced Grant, the ERC Synergy Grant, and the 2025 INSERM Breakthrough Innovation Transfer Prize.

SonoMind's technology builds on 25 years of research at the Institut de Physique pour la Médecine and has already demonstrated over 60% reduction in depression severity after five days in early clinical studies. The company raised a Seed round of 3M euros in 2025 and closed a Series A of 20M euros in May 2026, led by Critical Path Ventures and Bpifrance.

SonoMind targets the 330 million people globally living with depression, 30 to 50% of whom are resistant to medication, with a non-invasive, side-effect-free ultrasound device aiming for market authorization by 2029. Tanter's prior venture SuperSonic Imagine has placed over 2,700 ultrasound devices across hospitals in more than 80 countries.