Four major researchers with international recognition have been honoured at the fourth edition of Sanofi - Institut Pasteur Awards for their works in two major fields for global health: tropical and neglected diseases and immunology.
Dr. Marco Vignuzzi - laureate in the Junior category - Viral Populations and Pathogenesis Research Unit, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France, and CNRS researcher has been awarded for his works on viral mutations presenting a short-term epidemic potential followed by Dr Mohamed-Ali Hakimi - laureate in the Junior category - Host-Pathogen Interactions & Immunity to Infections, Institut Albert Bonniot, Université Grenoble Alpes, France, Inserm - CNRS, for his researches on the functioning of the parasite Toxoplama gondii responsible for toxoplasmosis, professor Keith Matthews - laureate in the Mid-career category - Center for Immunity, Infection and Evolution, School of Biological Sciences, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom, for his researches on the parasite Trypanosama brucei responsible for sleeping sickness, professor Emil Unanue - laureate in the Senior category - Department of Pathology and Immunology, Washington University School of Medicine, Saint Louis, USA, for his work on the recognition of proteins by the immune system, paving the way to the research of therapies against autoimmune diseases such as type 1 diabetes, multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid polyarthritis.
Created in 2012, the Sanofi - Institut Pasteur Awards are the result of a historical and privileged collaboration between two partners, Sanofi and the Institut Pasteur, to encourage and support scientific excellence and innovation in the service of global health. They are the first international scientific prizes to honour researchers, recognized both by an international academic research center and a leader in the pharmaceutical industry. The overall allocation of the prizes amount to 300,000 euros.
The laureates received their Awards at the occasion of a ceremony on November 4 at the Institut Pasteur (Paris) in the presence of Christian Bréchot, president of the Institut Pasteur, and Olivier Brandicourt, chief executive officer, Sanofi, and the jury members.
"The Sanofi - Institut Pasteur Awards are today among the most prestigious international scientific prizes with the strongest allocation," declared Christian Bréchot. "We are proud to welcome the new promotion of the laureates of the Sanofi - Institut Pasteur Awards whose contributions enable to make concrete progress in the field of life sciences."
"The Sanofi - Institut Pasteur Awards show our long-term commitment to scientific progress" said Olivier Brandicourt. "The therapeutic areas in which the researchers were attributed today the Sanofi - Institut Pasteur Awards remind us that a lot still needs to be accomplished in the field of global health."
The jury awarding the prizes is independent and composed of 11 distinguished members in the research community-- Pr. Peter C. Agre, Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2003, University Professor and Director of the Paludism, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, USA, Pr. Elizabeth H. Blackburn, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2009, Professor of Biology and Physiology in the Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, University of California, San Francisco, USA, Pr. Pascale Cossart, Member of the French Academy of Sciences, Head of Bacteria-Cell Interactions Research Unit, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France, Pr. Catherine Dulac, Member of the French Academy of Sciences, Higgins Professor of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, Harvard University, Cambridge, USA, Pr. Alain Fischer, director of the Paediatric Immunology Unit (Inserm), Hôpital Necker-Enfants malades, Professor at the Paris Descartes University, Paris, France,
Pr. Jörg Hinrich Hacker, president of the German Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, Halle, Germany, Pr. Jules A. Hoffmann, Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 2011, Distinguished Class Research Director at CNRS (Emeritus), Invited Professor at Strasbourg University, France, Dr. Gary J. Nabel, chief scientific officer, Global R&D Sanofi, Cambridge, USA, Pr. Staffan Normark, Professor of Medical Microbiology, Karolinska Institutet, Stockholm, Sweden, Member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences, Sweden, Pr. Jeffrey V. Ravetch, Professor and Head of the Leonard Wagner Laboratory of Molecular Genetics and Immunology at the Rockefeller University, New-York, USA, Pr. Philippe Sansonetti, Member of the French Academy of Sciences, Professor at the Collège de France, Head of the Molecular Microbial Pathogenesis Unit, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France.