A look back at the 2022 edition of the Institut Pasteur Young Scientists Conference and award ceremony

On September 20, the senior management team and the Executive Scientific Division held the annual Institut Pasteur Young Scientists Conference. This was an opportunity to present and discuss the science carried out by early career scientists at the Institut Pasteur and to look ahead to the exciting future in store for research. In his introductory address, Stewart Cole emphasized just how much research needs the motivation and commitment of early career scientists, reminding them that "You are the future of the Institut Pasteur."

The next part of the event was led by Christophe d'Enfert, Senior Executive Scientific Vice-President, who invited several U5 and G5 heads to speak about their research. After a brief presentation of their careers to date, each presented the latest developments in the research carried out by their respective teams in their specialist fields and outlined the goals and challenges associated with their research. The following scientists spoke in turn:

•    Miria Ricchetti, Head of the Molecular Mechanisms of Pathological and Physiological Aging five-year unit: Accelerated and physiological aging: links and molecular mechanisms

•    Laurent Debarbieux, Head of the Bacteriophage, Bacterium, Host five-year unit: The powerful but complex use of bacteriophages to target bacteria resistant to antibiotics

•    Darragh Duffy, Head of the Translational Immunology Unit: Understanding immune diversity in health and disease

•    Francesca Di Nunzio, Head of the Advanced Molecular Virology five-year unit: On the road of a new biological mechanism for virus-host coexistence

•    Camille Berthelot, Head of the Comparative Functional Genomics five-year group: Tracing the evolution of gene regulation and the emergence of new traits

•    Thibaut Brunet, Head of the Evolutionary Cell Biology and Evolution of Morphogenesis five-year group: The origin of animal morphogenesis: insights from our closest unicellular relatives

 

This series of presentations by unit heads, complete with questions from the audience, was followed by the award ceremony for the 2022 Institut Pasteur Young Scientist Prize.

As Jean-Marc Ghigo, Head of the Genetics of Biofilms Unit – who was in attendance in his capacity as Secretary of the Institut Pasteur Scientific Council – explained, this award, introduced in 2018 to mark the Institut Pasteur's 130th anniversary, goes to a PhD student and a post-doctoral fellow who were first authors of high-level research papers published during the year. Exceptionally this year, in consultation with the senior management team, the Scientific Council decided to select three laureates for the award.

For this 2022 edition, Fabien Aubry (post-doc category), Adrià Sogues Castrejon and Cécile Tran Kiem (both in the PhD category) were recognized for their respective research papers and each gave a presentation in their theme: "Zika virus: the African exception," "Essential interdependence of FtsZ and SepF in corynebacterial cell division" and "Modeling the spread and control of SARS-CoV-2 in France."

See the video of the 2022 Institut Pasteur Young Scientists Conference