Javier Pizarro-Cerdá wins the 2017 Georges, Jacques and Elias Canetti Award

The annual Georges, Jacques and Elias Canetti Award, set up in 2006, provides support for Institut Pasteur scientists carrying out research in the field of infectious diseases. The aim of the award is to recognize talent, encourage creation and reward the achievements of scientists.

The 12th edition of the Canetti Award goes to Javier Pizarro-Cerdá for his research on Listeria monocytogenes, the bacterium responsible for listeriosis. The scientist and his team used a range of cutting-edge techniques to shed light on the molecular mechanisms employed by L. monocytogenes to cause infection. Javier Pizarro-Cerdá and his team recently described an antibiotic secreted by L. monocytogenes. This antibiotic eliminates the protective bacteria in the gut microbiota, thereby encouraging the development of listeriosis. This important discovery by the team paves the way for the development of new antibacterial therapies.

The Canetti Award was presented to Javier Pizarro-Cerdá on Tuesday September 5 by the actor Pierre Arditi at a ceremony attended by Bernard, Johanna and Françoise Canetti, the award's founders, Christian Bréchot, President of the Institut Pasteur and et de Gabriel Macaya-Trejos, Ambassador of Costa Rica in France.

To find out more, read the press release (in french)