Since its creation in 1887, the Institut Pasteur has become famous throughout the world as a symbol of science and French culture. For 120 years, the foundation has been contributing to the prevention and treatment of infectious diseases through research, teaching and public health initiatives.
The Institut Pasteur enjoys an independent status and has numerous other assets, with its research laboratories, technological platforms, teaching and medical centers all located on one campus in the heart of Paris. It also has an international network which currently counts 30 members spread over the five continents. With its unique setup and prestigious history, the Institut Pasteur has always stood at the forefront of innovation, adapting to the rapidly developing world of biological research and its applications, in particular in the field of vaccine development.
Some key facts about the Institut Pasteur:
- A World leading biomedical research institute
- 10 Nobel prizes (latest 2008 – Françoise Barré-Sinoussi, Luc Montagnier, Nobel Prize of Medicine)
- 1st scientific course held in 1889 (Microbiology). Today, 20 courses organized every year, including a 4 weeks course of vaccinology.
- Today: 120 labs on campus, dispatched among 10 Departments
- 800 students and post-docs from more than 55 different countries
- Over 50 Ph.D. students per year
- 24 core facilities
- 8 WHO collaborating centers, 20 National Reference Centers
- International Network of Pasteur Institute (30 Institutes worldwide)
Institut Pasteur’s tasks / roles in the ADITEC project:
Institut Pasteur contributes to 2 work packages (activities) in the ADITEC project: the development of ‘vaccine vectors’, led by Claude Leclerc of Institut Pasteur, and to ‘Aging and early life’.
In the work package ‘Vaccine vectors’, the general objective is to contribute to the pre-clinical development of new vectors for optimized induction of protective polyvalent immune responses using common prototype antigens. The properties of each vector is the result of the combination of its intrinsic properties, particularly: (i) type of antigen presenting cell, (ii) intracellular route and processing, (iii) type of innate cells infected or stimulated and (iv) persistence in the host. The intrinsic properties of some of these vectors for these various parameters will be analyzed.
In the work package ‘Aging and early life’ the objectives are:
- To study the influence of host factors related to age that modulate immune response in early life.
- To develop candidate adjuvants targeting TLR and non-TLR innate pathways that appropriately stimulate the neonatal immune system both in mouse model and human.
Institut Pasteur’s contribution in advancing immunization technologies in the coming years:
Based on the knowledge of the mechanisms by which vectors induce optimal immune responses, selected characteristic(s) of the vectors could then be manipulated in order to increase their efficacy or to modify the pattern of the immune responses they trigger. This innovative approach could lead to the development of artificial vectors with well-controlled properties and defined safety profile or to the development of live vaccine vectors with improved safety and efficacy to be combined in prime-boost strategies, advanced to protection studies and to the clinic.
In addition, Institut Pasteur will contribute to increase the knowledge of the immune system in early life in mouse model and in human. They will also develop a mouse/human neonatal platform to study responses to vaccines.
Institut Pasteur’s contribution so far:
- Established a new mouse model lacking plasmacytoid dendritic cells
- Established an in vitro model for the analysis of H56 antigens immunogenicity
- Established the capacity of a new vector to induce protection against mycobacterial infection through ESX antigens delivery to airway dendritic cells
- Established the adjuvant activity of inactivated Influenza vaccine on human neonatal plasmacytoid DCs to induce Th1 responses in vitro.
- Demonstrated in the neonatal mouse model, using a subunit vaccine, the capacity of a glycosidic candidate adjuvant targeting Dectin-1 to promote Th1/Th17 immune responses in vivo which are protective against TB infection.
What Institut Pasteur expects from the ADITEC project:
The development of vaccines against infectious diseases has always represented one of the most important objectives of the Pasteur Institute. ADITEC will help establish new collaborations for opening new research opportunities and to have access to new tools (vectors and adjuvants). It is also very important for Principal Investigators as well as for post-docs and PhD students to have the possibility to meet and discuss with key leaders in the various fields of vaccinology to remain at the forefront of this discipline.
This increase in networking will be directly beneficial to the Institut Pasteur and to the French vaccinology community. In particular, to promote new interactions, Institut Pasteur already invited several ADITEC partners to give lectures in the Department of Immunology and at the Vaccine Congress that Claude Leclerc of Insitut Pasteur is co-organizing every two years.
Institut Pasteur’s involved researchers:
Claude Leclerc, Professor, Head of Immune Regulation and Vaccinology Unit
Richard Lo-Man, Associate Professor, leader of the Neonatal Immunity Group
Gilles Dadaglio, Assistant Professor
Sébastien Lemoine, Post doc
Francesc Rudilla, Post doc
Tristan Félix, Engineer