June 05, 2020
Bulletin interne de l'Institut Pasteur
Two Institut Pasteur scientists recognized with awards
- Anne Dejean elected as a new member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences
The American Academy of Arts and Sciences is both an honorary society that recognizes and celebrates the excellence of its members and an independent research center convening leaders from across disciplines, professions and perspectives to address significant challenges. It has 5,700 members, global experts in arts and sciences, business, philanthropy and public affairs, including more than 250 Nobel laureates and more than 60 Pulitzer Prize laureates. Based both in the United States and across the world, these elected members join with other experts in exploring the challenges facing society, identifying solutions and promoting impartial recommendations to advance the common good.
Professor Anne Dejean, Head of the Nuclear Organization and Oncogenesis Unit at the Institut Pasteur and Inserm, is one of the 250 new members elected this year by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
- Gérard Eberl, laureate of the Grand Prix of the Simone and Cino Del Duca Foundation
Despite the health crisis, the juries for the Grands Prix awarded by the Foundations of the Institut de France were able to meet up remotely to select the winners of the prestigious prizes. This year, the Scientific Grand Prix of the Simone and Cino Del Duca Foundation was awarded to Gérard Eberl, Head of the Microenvironment and Immunity Unit at the Institut Pasteur, on the theme "Symbioses," for his project "The language of symbiosis and neonatal immune imprinting."
The Scientific Grand Prix of the Simone and Cino Del Duca Foundation goes to a French or European scientist and his or her team with an ambitious research project on a promising topic, specified in advance each year.
Immunologist Gérard Eberl is seeking to understand how the immune system in mammals communicates with the billions of microbes that live inside us to maintain a productive symbiosis between the two partners. He is attempting to elucidate the nature of this dialog, which is essential for the development and regulation of the immune system from early infancy onwards. With his team in the Institut Pasteur's Microenvironment and Immunity Unit, he has demonstrated the key role played by lymphoid cells in the gut of newborn infants: the cells receive signals from the bacteria that colonize the gut, instructing them to recruit antibody-producing cells so as to achieve a balance between microbes and the infant. But these bacteria multiply rapidly at weaning and when solid food is introduced, resulting in a strong immune reaction known as the "weaning reaction." Gérard Eberl and his team recently demonstrated that this weaning reaction determines the long-term responsiveness of the immune system, preventing susceptibility to allergies, autoimmune disorders and diabetes months or even years later. They are now working to understand how agents that disrupt this neonatal symbiosis, such as antibiotics, an unbalanced diet or stress, can impair the weaning reaction and increase inflammatory risk, with the aim of identifying solutions to prevent this disruption.