Press & Media – Launch of the IHU Prometheus, the world’s first center integrating research, training and care to defeat sepsis

​Camille Galap, President of the University of Paris-Saclay, Nicolas Revel, Director General of the Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris (AP-HP), Anne-Isabelle Étienvre, Director of Fundamental Research at the CEA and Didier Samuel, Chairman and CEO of the National Institute of Health and Medical Research (Inserm) opened the morning launch of the IHU Prometheus on Tuesday, September 17, in the presence of Sylvie Retailleau, Minister of Higher Education and Research.

The IHU Prometheus is the world’s leading institute dedicated to the fight against sepsis, integrating researchers, caregivers, patients, institutions and private partners, within an ecosystem of prevention, care, research, training and technology transfer.

The challenge is major because, although relatively unknown to the general public, sepsis is the most serious complication of infections. It is characterized by a loss of control of inflammation leading to damage to vital functions. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), sepsis affects 50 million people each year (45% of whom are children under 5 years old), is responsible for one in four deaths worldwide and for mental and motor disabilities in one in two survivors. Despite decades of abundant research, the mechanisms of the deregulation of the host response to pathogens remain poorly understood and no treatment has been found.

The creation of the IHU aims to promote the development of new diagnostic tests and new drugs to reduce by half in ten years the health, social and economic burden represented by sepsis.

This was confirmed by Mervyn Singer, President of the IHU’s Independent International Scientific Council, Jamila Hedjal, President of the France Sepsis Association and Marisol Touraine, President of the IHU’s Supervisory Board, who also spoke in the morning’s introduction.

“This IHU will be a force for considerable scientific and medical innovation serving public health and patients, in France but also in countries of the Global South. As Chair of its Supervisory Board, I will ensure that this IHU has the means to achieve this great ambition and guarantee its supervised autonomy.”rejoiced Marisol Touraine.

Sylvie Retailleau, Minister of Higher Education and Research, concluded this sequence:
“With a 2030 Health Innovation Plan with a budget of 7.5 billion euros, France is giving itself the means to remain one of the leading countries in health innovation. The 12 new IHUs and the 4 bioclusters that it allows to be created promote innovative partnerships between public and private actors, conducive to the exchange of ideas and the implementation of collaborative projects with society and patients. Excellence in research is combined with excellence in care. The Prometheus IHU thus illustrates the capacity of our institutions to produce the best when they work together.”.

In front of a packed audience at the Raymond-Poincaré AP-HP hospital in Garches (94), the launch morning continued with a speech by the director of the IHU, Djillali Annane, professor at the University of Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines, head of the intensive care medicine department at the Raymond-Poincaré hospital, Paris-Saclay University Hospital Group of the AP-HP and head of the LARENES team at the Inflammation and infection laboratory (UVSQ/Univ. ParisSaclay/Inserm). He presented the scientific program and the governance structure of the Institute.

“I am proud of the launch of this IHU dedicated to sepsis – a major global public health problem. For almost 2 years now, the motivation of caregivers, researchers, teachers and patients has not weakened, on the contrary it grows a little more every day. The Prometheus IHU is unique in its multidisciplinarity, a Source of hope for patients and their families, a major socioeconomic partner. Its supervised autonomy will guarantee its medical and socioeconomic efficiency.”said Professor Djillali Annane.

The two deputy directors of the IHU, Olivier Lambotte, professor of clinical immunology at the University of Paris-Saclay and Roger Le Grand, director of the Infectious diseases models for innovative therapies (IDMIT) department of the CEA, then respectively developed two essential components for the success of the institute: that of the education program, essential for best training the actors and actresses of research and care and that of the valorization program, vector of creation of new companies and jobs made possible thanks to the future scientific and technological discoveries of the IHU.

This global Comprehensive Sepsis Center already brings together members of more than 60 research teams in chemistry, physics, mathematics, engineering sciences, biology, medicine, social and human sciences, and economics. The 275 researchers and 94 clinical physicians of this unique healthcare-research-training institute will be able to count on leading industrial partners, such as Arkhn, Baxter, Biomérieux, Biothelis, Pfizer, Primadiag, Sphingoteck, Volition. This ambitious project also involves patients through the involvement of patient associations in France (France Sepsis Association) and internationally (European Sepsis Alliance, Global Sepsis Alliance, and Sepsis Canada).

“The IHU Prometheus is fully in line with the celebration of World Sepsis Days and the launch of the Global Sepsis Agenda presented at the 1st European Summit of Sepsis Patients and their Families, organized on September 9 at the Economic, Social and Environmental Council in Paris and on September 10 at the Bundestag in Berlin, under the patronage of the WHO.” says Mariam Jashi, CEO of Global Sepsis Alliance.

This launch morning concluded with a presentation by ANR representatives recalling the administrative, financial and scientific monitoring procedures of the IHU Prometheus, referenced ANR-23- IAHU-0004.

Prometheus IHU launch morning. From left to right: Roger le Grand, deputy director of the IHU; Olivier Lambotte, deputy director dand the IHU; Marc Humbert, Dean of the Faculty of Medicine at Paris-Saclay University; Djillali Annane, Director of the IHU; Anne-Isabelle Etiennevre,director of the fundamental research of the CEA; Marc Pallardy, dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy of the University of Paris-Saclay; Marisol Touraine, president of the IHU Supervisory Board; Loïc Josseran, Dean of the UFR Simone Veil – Health of the UVSQ, Sylvie Retailleau, Minister of L’higher education and research; Camille Galap, President of the University Paris-Saclay; Jamila Hedjal, president of France Sepsis Association; Mervyn Singer, President of the Independent, International Scientific Council of the IHU; Laurence Parmentier, Paris Regional Delegate Île-de-France Sud Inserm; Nicolas Revel, Director General of the Public Assistance – Paris Hospitals (AP-HP); Pierre-Christophe Baguet, Mayor from Boulogne Billancourt; Jean Luc Dubois-Randé President of the University of Paris-Est Créteil; Yazdan Yazdanpanah Director of ANRS Diseases iEmerging infectious diseases – © Univ. Paris-Saclay / Christophe Peus