After more than three years of exemplary work and commitment in the service of the Institut Pasteur and the medical center's patients, Professor Pierre Buffet has decided to step down as Medical Director of the Institut Pasteur to devote more time to his research activities. We would like to thank him most warmly for his vision, his efforts and the results he has achieved, together with the entire medical management team, on all fronts of our public health mission, our clinical research and our health surveillance activities, thanks to our National Reference Centers (CNR) and, in liaison with our hospital partners and the public authorities, to our medical consultation and vaccination activities.

To succeed Pierre Buffet, we are pleased to announce the arrival of Professor Jean-Michel Molina as the new Medical Director of the Institut Pasteur. Professor of Infectious Diseases at the Université Paris Cité and medical representative of Hôpital Saint-Louis (AP-HP) since 2019, Jean-Michel Molina has headed the Infectious and Tropical Diseases Department of Hôpital Saint-Louis and Hôpital Lariboisière at AP-HP since 2001. He is also a member of the Inserm 1342 team on the biology and pathogenesis of viral infections. A recognized player in the fight against HIV (he was behind the introduction of HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP, after conducting the initial clinical trials with ANRS support), Jean-Michel Molina has an internationally recognized scientific and clinical profile, and is involved in several national and international clinical research networks. For more than 10 years, he headed the coordinated action on clinical trials at ANRS. His experience at the AP-HP, where he will continue part of his activities during his first two years at the Institut Pasteur, and in French public health, will be invaluable in continuing to strengthen Institut Pasteur's position in this ecosystem, in conjunction with hospitals and universities. All of these assets will enable him to steer Institut Pasteur's clinical research and public health mission, as outlined in our strategic plan.

In particular, Jean-Michel Molina will contribute to the advancement of flagship projects and programs of the Pasteur 2030 strategic plan, such as the Center for Vaccinology and Immunotherapy (CVI) and pandemic preparedness. He will also work closely with the Research Applications and Industrial Relations Department (DARRI) on Institut Pasteur's innovation projects with a clinical and medical component that could lead to new technologies and medical solutions. He will also be involved in research conducted within the Pasteur Network.

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Jean-Michel Molina commented: “I would first like to pay tribute to the remarkable work carried out by Professor Buffet and his teams in the medical department over the last past three years. I want to build on his teams to strengthen Institut Pasteur's links with Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP) and Université Paris Cité (UPC), as well as with other universities and research institutes. I'm looking forward to joining this prestigious campus and meeting the researchers to better understand their expectations and help them develop some of their projects. I am very honoured by the trust placed in me by the President Professor Yasmine Belkaid, in proposing that I join the Institut Pasteur's medical directorate and hope to be up to this very exciting task.”

Jean-Michel Molina will join the Institut Pasteur at the beginning of November.
 
Jean-Michel Molina, a medical doctor and graduate of the René Descartes University, has been head of the Infectious and Tropical Diseases Department at the Saint-Louis and Lariboisière hospitals for almost 25 years. Professor of Infectious Diseases at Université Paris Cité since 1997, he also holds a PhD in Human Biology from Paris 7 University for his research on HIV infection of monocytes/macrophages and bone marrow. He is currently a member of the Inserm 1342 team at the Saint-Louis Research Institute on the biology and pathogenesis of viral infections.

Over the course of his career, his research and medical work have given him extensive experience in epidemiology, microbiology, statistics and internal medicine. He has specific expertise in infectious diseases and in particular, in many aspects of HIV infection: studying pathogenesis, setting up treatments (once-daily triple therapy) and, since 2018, working on prevention (preventive use of antiretrovirals). Jean-Michel Molina has trained numerous French and European scientists in research into HIV and sexually transmitted infectious diseases (STIs).

Jean-Michel Molina has been involved in the fight against HIV/AIDS since he was a clinician and has also been involved in and led a number of national and international programs, structures and organizations renowned in this field and at the interface between medicine and research. He was Chairman of the ANRS Coordinated Action on Therapeutic Trials (2005-2017) and a member of the ANRS Strategic Committee (2017-2020). Since 2010, he has been a WHO expert member on HIV treatment and prevention and, since 2018, a member of the scientific board of the European NEAT network. Between 2013 and 2023, he was coordinator of the national network for clinical research in infectious diseases (RENARCI).

Previously a member of the organizing committee of the 2018 International AIDS Conference in Paris and the 2026 International AIDS Conference in Rio, and of the annual American Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections for the past 6 years, Jean-Michel Molina is the current co-chair of the European AIDS Conference currently being held in Paris, and chair of the congress of the French Infectious Diseases Society, to be held in Paris in 2026. Jean-Michel Molina's expertise in setting up and running large-scale international conferences is a valuable asset.

Jean-Michel Molina is the author of numerous publications resulting from international collaborative work. He has been awarded several prizes, including the Fondation pour la Recherche Médicale sur le sida prize (1994), the European AIDS Society prize (2017), and two prizes awarded by the French National Academy of Medicine (1998 and 2019).