For the fifth year in a row, the Institut Pasteur was one of the official partners of the Utopiales international science fiction festival, which took place from October 30 to November 2, 2025 at La Cité Nantes Congress Center.

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For 25 years now, this event has brought together scientists, artists, authors, illustrators and software publishers from all over the world, together with a huge audience, to explore ideas and develop thought experiments. Over four days, the festival features round tables, film screenings, exhibitions, games, concerts and opportunities to meet artists and scientists.

For this 26th edition, the theme of the festival was "singularities," with four sub-themes: attraction, resistance, individual and anomaly. Five Institut Pasteur staff were delighted to participate in this year's discussions and debates:

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• Yannick Goulam Houssen, ia research engineer in the BioImaging Platform at the Hearing Institute (round tables: "My body, my me" and "Is an AI a person?")
   
• Philippe Glaser, Head of the Ecology and Evolution of Antibiotic Resistance Unit (round table: "Absolute resistance")
   
• Sophie Bouton, a scientist in the Neural Coding and Neuroengineering of Human Speech Functions Unit (round table: "Memory and identity")
   
• Gabriel Lepousez, a scientist in the Perception & Action Unit (round table: "One memory to govern us all")
   
• François Bontems, head of the partnership with the Utopiales and a scientist in the Structural Virology Unit (moderator of round tables: "Absolute resistance" and "The creative error").

See the 2025 program to find out more

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