Two Institut Pasteur scientists recognized with awards

Odile Launay receives the Special Prize for Commitment created to mark the 20th anniversary of the Irène Joliot-Curie Award

Since it was launched in 2001, the Irène Joliot-Curie Award has promoted the achievements of women in science and technology. Every year, the award goes to women who have had outstanding careers in research in the public or private sector.

For this anniversary year, Frédérique Vidal, French Minister of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, wanted to create an additional "Special Prize for Commitment" for a woman whose basic or applied research made a remarkable contribution to efforts to tackle the COVID-19 epidemic, especially by providing general or more specific responses to the challenges encountered by France during the health crisis.

Given the outstanding quality of the applications received, the jury decided to award the prize to two women, one of whom was Odile Launay, Professor of Medicine and Coordinator of the Cochin-Pasteur Vaccinology Investigation Center (CIC),* who was recognized for her commitment to clinical vaccine research on COVID-19 and her service to the public.

Vittoria Colizza, Research Director at Inserm and at the Pierre Louis Institute of Epidemiology and Public Health in the SUMO (surveillance and modeling of communicable diseases) team, was also honored for her multidisciplinary research on characterizing and modeling the spread of emerging infectious diseases, including COVID-19.

The awards are presented by the French Ministry of Higher Education, Research and Innovation, with the support of the French Academy of Sciences and Academy of Technologies, which form the jury.

Find out more (in French)

*CIC Cochin Pasteur is the only academic center in France dedicated to vaccines. The Institut Pasteur works with CIC Cochin Pasteur to carry out vaccine clinical trials. Cochin Hospital and the Institut Pasteur began working together in 1998 on infectious diseases, especially in connection with HIV research. The partnership serves as a basis for joint reflection and for the implementation of translational research projects combining basic and clinical research and epidemiology, supported by state-of-the-art technological platforms. CIC Cochin Pasteur is a key partner for the Institut Pasteur in helping it achieve the aims and objectives of its ongoing immunology and vaccinology initiative.

Philippe Bousso, laureate of the Grand Prix Oberling-Haguenau

The "Grand Prix Oberling-Haguenau Fondation ARC," awarded by the ARC Cancer Research Foundation, is presented every two years to a scientist under the age of 55 working in a French laboratory who has produced an original scientific publication on the etiology of cancer, the mechanisms of malignant transformation, the host-cancer relationship, or cancer treatment.

This year, the award went to Philippe Bousso, Director of the Department of Immunology, for his research on anti-tumor immunity.