Pasteur MI

Fostering health through outstanding research

The “Pasteur Maladies Infectieuses” (“Pasteur Infectious Diseases”) Carnot institute includes five specialized departments of the “Institut Pasteur” (Virology, Microbiology,
Parasitology & Mycology, Infection & Epidemiology, Cell Biology & Infection) in partnership with CNRS and INSERM, dedicated to research on infectious diseases. It brings together basic and applied research activities involving numerous research partnerships with SMEs and large pharmaceutical and diagnostic companies.

Assets

• An identity built on a prestigious history
• Independence due to the status of the “Institut Pasteur” (non-for-profit private foundation) that strengthens its uniqueness, its flexibility and its capacity to mobilize expertise
• A comprehensive infrastructure supporting research and public health, including technological platforms, located on a single campus
• Proven track record of close collaborations with health industry
• Innovative technology transfer mechanisms leading to the creation of start-up companies or to commercialization, exemplifying an ambitious strategy to support all major bio-industry sectors

Missions

The goal of research performed at the “Pasteur MI” Carnot institute is to understand
basic mechanisms of host (in particular human) cells / pathogen interaction, to eventually
develop tools to diagnose known or emerging pathologies, and to perform the clinical
validation of vaccines and therapeutic treatments. Our research aims at providing an answer to today’s society expectations in public health problems, whether in developed countries (in particular AIDS, emergent or re-emergent diseases and resistance to antibiotic treatments) or in developing countries (in particular diseases of parasitic origin like Contributions and benefits malaria or viral origin like hepatitis).

Strategy

In order to fight against infectious diseases, the “Pasteur Infectious Diseases” Carnot institute relies on results from basic research and on assistance from technological platforms, in order to produce major advances in the four following topics :

• Strategies for treatment of AIDS and cancers of infectious origin (various approaches are under way and some of them have reached the stage of clinical trials)
• Study of emergent diseases, in particular of viral origin, by contributing to the identification of pathogenic agents causing emergent pathologies or already known pathologies caused by unknown pathogenic agents, and by integrating environmental clues to identify the threat which medical authorities must face (lifespan of the virus or bacterium, drug resistance,…). Promising technologies are under development in partnership with industry partners, such as new micro-arrays generation, making it possible to explore in a single run the entire known viral world or, in the long term, to quickly identify a new virus in humans
• Study of resistance mechanisms to antibiotics and, more generally, mechanisms of adaptation of the pathogenic agents to their environment and study of virulence factors
• Fight against parasitic diseases (malaria, leishmaniosis, toxoplasmosis,…) which affect a significant number of persons in the world, mainly in developing countries. Important industrial partnerships were recently initiated and should extend in the next years, in particular to foster the development of new vaccines.

Research Departments

• Cell Biology and Infection (Pr. Pascale COSSART)
• Infection and Epidemiology (Pr. Jean-Marc CAVAILLON)
• Microbiology (Pr. Patrick FORTERRE)
• Parasitology and Mycology (Pr. Odile Puijalon)
• Virology (Pr. Félix Rey)

Core business

• Life sciences & health technologies