Faced with the accelerated emergence of new infectious pathologies, the Pasteur Institute displays in its “Pasteur 2030” strategy the desire to return to its fundamentals with a project for a research center in vaccinology and infectious diseases (CVI). Part of the France Vaccin program, this future research center will focus on understanding mechanisms that will pave the way for future vaccines and immunotherapies against emerging or re-emerging infections. It will also participate in pandemic preparedness.
“Pasteur has committed its own funds for the construction of a high-level technological platform for the study of human immunology”specifies the director of the Institute Yasmine Belkaid. Government funds, the amount of which remains to be determined, will be allocated to the operation of this center. “ For example, we will study the interactions between human genetics and the response to vaccines”continues Yasmine Belkaid.
The teams from the future research center will continue work on the Measles platform developed by Pasteur. The latter was used to develop vaccines against Lassa fever and the Zika virus, but it was not effective enough against Covid-19. “This vaccine technology is not relevant against all types of pathogens, so we will maintain a diversity of platformscontinues Yasmine Belkaid. One of the big challenges at the moment is to find a vaccine that allows the development of immunity within the tissues. We know very well how to create peripheral immunity, but it is more difficult to create immune memory within the tissues themselves. » In the context of the vaccine project carried out at Pasteur, a “big job” will be conducted on mucosal immunity, promises Yasmine Belkaid in partnership with the Pasteur Institute in Lille.
Acceleration of infectious emergences
The vaccinology research center will be used in a complementary manner with the Institut Pasteur’s other major project: the research center on infections, climate and the environment (ICE). Funded to the tune of 90 million by the Pasteur Institute and scheduled to open its doors in 2028, this center will have an impressive technical platform. It will thus be the first place in France to have a Titan electron microscope installed inside a P3 laboratory, in addition to the gigantic Titan Krios microscope already installed in its own building.
The Pasteur Institute justifies these heavy investments by an increasingly worrying global infectious context. The infectious risk “is re-emerging today in new forms, following new phenomena that we had not anticipated and that we ourselves caused or accelerated”explains Yasmine Belkaid. The emergence of vector-borne diseases is particularly feared by researchers. “The more average temperatures increase, the more mosquitoes there will be, because their life cycles will shorten. In addition, pathogens will multiply more quickly in their organisms, continues Anna-Bella Failloux, head of the Arbovirus and insect vectors laboratory at the Pasteur Institute. Deforestation and changes in agropastoral practices will also contribute to the explosion in the number of cases. »
-A new insectarium will open its doors within the ICE. Unlike the current installation, it will no longer be limited to mosquitoes and ticks, but will house all of the listed insect vectors. Thus, Anna-Bella Failloux’s teams hope to study the Oropouche virus, transmitted by the biting midge, and already responsible for more than 10,000 infections in 2024 in South America and the Caribbean where its geographical area extends further in addition.
Addressing the disinterest of the public and private sectors
The objective of these new structures “is to create spaces in which proactive researchers can carry out work”explains Yasmine Belkaid, who shows her support for the ” freedom “ scientists to delve into very fundamental subjects. “It was while working on bacterial immunity, a very esoteric subject, that we discovered Crispr-Cas9,” she likes to recall.
And in this area“States struggle to finance research work, particularly the most fundamental”regrets Yasmine Belkaid who also does not hope for help from the private sector. “Infectious diseases are not a market for themshe insists. Laboratories focus their efforts on certain pathologies such as cancers or neurodegenerative diseases. »
The budget of the Pasteur Institute was 373.6 million euros in 2023, of which only 17% comes from the State, compared to 40% 20 years ago. At the same time, 8.8% of these funds are provided by industrial revenues and 19.5% by research partnerships with private laboratories. In addition to the generosity of the public, Yasmine Belkaid is now banking on Europe and the pooling of resources to give Pasteur the means to achieve his ambitions. “We are targeting European grants, we are working with Inserm and the CNRS on co-recruitment and we are establishing partnerships to develop technologies together”she explains.
