Институт Пастера: История и достижения французской науки о болезнях.

French disease research organization

The Pasteur Institute (, ) is a French non profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who invented pasteurization and vaccines for anthrax and rabies. The institute was founded on 4 June 1887 and inaugurated on 14 November 1888. For over a century, the Institut Pasteur has researched infectious diseases. This worldwide biomedical research organization based in Paris was the first to isolate HIV, the virus that causes AIDS, in 1983. It has also been responsible for discoveries that have enabled medical science to control diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus, tuberculosis, poliomyelitis, influenza, yellow fever, and plague. Since 1908, ten Institut Pasteur scientists have been awarded the Nobel Prize for medicine and physiology—the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was shared between two Pasteur scientists.

The center against rabies, directed by Jacques Joseph Grancher and Émile Roux, had become so overcrowded that it became necessary to build a structure that Pasteur had been calling with the name "Institute Pasteur" long before it was even built. Pasteur delegated the task of the project and of creating the new building, situated on rue Dutot, to two of his colleagues, Grancher and Emile Duclaux. From the beginning, the Institute experienced economical difficulties for which it needed the help of the government, some foreign rulers, and Madame Boucicaut, but this aid did not affect its independence. The statutes drawn by Pasteur and later approved by Duclaux and Grancher define, besides its absolute freedom and independence, the institute's internal structure: a rabies division controlled by Grancher, anthrax one in Chamberland’s hands, who also supervised the department of microbiology, while Emile Roux dealt with microbial methods applied to medicine.

During the First World War, the Pasteur institute prioritized vaccinating troops against the easily contractable typhoid fever. By September 1914, the institute was able to provide 670,000 doses of the vaccine and continued to produce it throughout the conflict. Gabriel Bertrand, with Roux's authorization, crafted a grenade based on chloropicrin and Fourneau discovered the chemical reaction that led to the formation of methylarsine chloride. In 1921, Albert Simard edited the La réaction de fixation de l'alexine: son application au diagnostic sérologique de la peste, "work of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, plague laboratory." In 1938 the institute, despite its relative poverty, built a biochemical division and another one dedicated to cellular pathology, whose direction was entrusted to the hands of Boivin (who went on to discover endotoxins that are contained in the germ's body and are freed after its death). During the same period, Andre Lwoff assumed the direction of a new microbial physiology branch built on rue Dutot. The institute deposited the complete sequences of the virus samples taken from two of the first French cases on the GISAID database platform. The institute has also been involved in research and development of testing and epidemiological modelling, including in Africa via its network institutions. In 2020, Pasteur were involved in the development of a COVID 19 vaccine in partnership with Merck & Co., but this was abandoned in January 2021 after unsuccessful clinical trials. Institute Pasteur in Cambodia was a key institution involved in the public health response during the COVID 19 pandemic in Cambodia, as well as conducting research into SARS CoV 2. Pasteur Institute of Dakar were also involved in Senegal's health response. Nicolle managed to attract Hélène Sparrow to be Laboratory Chief in Tunis. She had worked with Rudolf Weigl who had developed a vaccine, and she was able to introduce this to Tunisia as the start of a public health programme to control the disease. Nevertheless, three other scientists also identified the bacterium responsible for the disease: Ricketts, Russell Morse Wilder (1885–1959), and Prowazek, who called it Rickettsia prowazekii.

The Hospital Pasteur was built during the first years of the 20th century in front of the institute and was employed for a long time by the members as a field for clinical observation and experimentations of therapeutical processes elaborated by themselves. Since in the beginning it was provided with only 120 beds, every patient was so well isolated in his private room that each room could be almost considered a small pest house, ideal for quarantine. The construction of the hospital was enabled by the gift of a benefactor, Madame Lebaudy, while money offered by the baroness Hirsch was used to build a large pavilion that accommodated the Department of Chemical Biology of the institute. is located in the south wing of the first building occupied by the Institut Pasteur, which was inaugurated on 14 November 1888. Established in 1936, this museum preserves the memory of Louis Pasteur's life and work in the vast apartment where he lived during the last seven years of his life, from 1888 to 1895. This museum also includes the collection of scientific objects illustrating the scientist's work, as well as the Neo Byzantine funeral chapel where Pasteur is buried.

Since its founding, the Institute Pasteur has brought together scientists from many different disciplines for postgraduate study. Today, approximately 300 graduate students and 500 postdoctoral trainees from close to 40 different countries participate in postgraduate study programs at the institute. They include pharmacists and veterinarians, as well as doctors, chemists, and other scientists.

Strains of bacteria and viruses from many different countries are sent to the institute's reference center for identification. In addition to maintaining this vital epidemiological resource, the Institute serves as an advisor to the French government and the World Health Organization (WHO) of the United Nations. Pasteur scientists also help to monitor epidemics and control outbreaks of infectious diseases throughout the world. These activities have created a close collaboration between the Institute and the U. S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

Production and marketing of diagnostic tests developed in the Institute laboratories are the responsibility of Sanofi Diagnostics Pasteur, a subsidiary of the French pharmaceutical firm Sanofi, while production and marketing of vaccines are the responsibility of Pasteur Mérieux, Sérums et Vaccins.

As a private, non profit organization, the Institut Pasteur is governed by an independent board of directors, currently chaired by François Ailleret. The director general is Stewart Cole. By drawing financial support from many different sources, the institute protects its autonomy and guarantees the independence of its scientists. The institute's funding includes French government subsidies, consulting fees, licensing royalties, contract revenue, and private contributions.

The book The Paris Option by Robert Ludlum and Gayle Lynds begins with four men blowing up the Institut Pasteur, as a cover for stealing a molecular computer project being done there.