A look back at the conference "130 Years of Institut Pasteur: Celebrating Science"

Last week's conference "130 Years of Institut Pasteur: Celebrating Science" was a unique opportunity to celebrate 130 years of excellence and outstanding research at the Institut Pasteur.

The three-day event began on Wednesday with an opening ceremony featuring a number of presentations. Olivier Schwartz, Scientific Director of the Institut Pasteur, opened the proceedings with an introduction to the wider context, the program and the organizing team. Institut Pasteur President Stewart Cole then spoke about Louis Pasteur and his achievements, and looked back at 130 years of success and discoveries – all of which served as inspiration for the 2019-2023 Strategic Plan. Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, laureate of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Medicine and Honorary President of the Institut Pasteur International Network, then took to the floor for a lecture about what has been accomplished in the field of HIV and the challenges that still lie ahead. She was followed by Philippe Sansonetti, a Professor at the Institut Pasteur and the Collège de France, who gave a presentation entitled "Microbes sans frontières: an agenda for the 21st century", and finally Yasmine Belkaïd from the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who spoke on "Nutritional control of tissue immunity".

This first series of presentations was followed by a lively cocktail reception in the CIS hall, accompanied by music and singing from three jazz and rock groups based on the Institut Pasteur campus.

Thursday and Friday featured a number of keynote speakers, many with close links to the Institut Pasteur – Yasmine Belkaïd from the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Michael Hall from the University of Basel, Switzerland; Michael Rosbash from Brandeis University/HHMI, Waltham, United States; and Michel Nussenzweig from The Rockefeller University, New York, United States –, together with contributions from around twenty scientists who presented their latest research in the following five areas:

A journey from molecules to cells
Individuals, populations, the power of modelling
An integrative vision of health and disease
Microbes and Hosts
Translating discoveries from bench to patients

Pascale Cossart, Head of the Bacteria-Cell Interactions Unit, a Professor at the Institut Pasteur and Permanent Secretary of the French Academy of Sciences, brought the three days of celebration and lectures to a close with a contribution entitled "Listeria monocytogenes, from cellular microbiology to microbiotology".

Slideshow of the event

See the video of the event

Download the program

Link to the live tweet

This month, the journal Genes & Immunity is publishing a special issue that pays tribute to the Institut Pasteur as a center for excellence in biomedical research and looks at the discoveries and research carried out over the past 130 years on the Paris campus. The issue includes articles that demonstrate the historical influence of the Institut Pasteur and its researchers – some pioneers in scientific fields such as sepsis and plague control, others tackling highly topical issues such as the diverse nature of fungal infections, the genetic evolution of Legionella, therapeutic approaches to chronic inflammatory diseases, and the effective treatment of the hepatitis virus.

Find out more about the special issue of the journal Genes & Immunity, which showcases the groundbreaking research conducted at the Institut Pasteur over the past 130 years.

The event also included two poster sessions, giving more than a hundred research entities based at the Institut Pasteur the opportunity to present posters showcasing a research finding or theme.

Several members of the Pasteurians and Alumni Network came along to the event – the question and answer session following the address by Claire-Angélique Renard, Head of Alumni Relations, featured a number of contributions from alumni. The dedicated Pasteurians and Alumni Network stand also attracted a number of current and future members, leading to lively conversations and demonstrating a real interest in the network’s activities.

Photos credits: François Gardy

Video editing: Jean-Marc Panaud

Copyright © 2016, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved
A flower-like nucleus induced by expression of the cellular protein SUN2 in human macrophage-like cells.
SUN2 is stained red, while the nucleus is stained blue.
(Immunofluorescence confocal microscope image by Daniel Aaron Donahue and Olivier Schwartz, Institut Pasteur)