Pasteur Institute
Founded | 1887 |
---|---|
Founder | Louis Pasteur |
Type | Non-profit[1] |
Purpose | Study biology, microorganisms, diseases and vaccines. |
Location |
|
Area served | Worldwide |
Services | Research, public health, training, innovation |
Official languages | French, English |
Key people | Stewart Cole (Director) |
Employees | 2,780 |
Website | www |
The Pasteur Institute (
. The institute was founded on 4 June 1887 and inaugurated on 14 November 1888.For over a century, the Institut Pasteur has researched
.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.
History
The Institut Pasteur was founded in 1887 by Louis Pasteur, the French chemist and microbiologist. He was committed both to basic research and its practical applications. From the start, Pasteur brought together scientists with various specialties. The first five departments were directed by two normaliens (graduates of the
Pasteur's successors have sustained this tradition, which is reflected in the Institut Pasteur's unique history of accomplishment:
- Emile Roux and Alexandre Yersin discovered the mechanism of action of Corynebacterium diphtheriae and how to treat diphtheria with antitoxins
- Alexandre Yersin discovered in 1894 the pathogen of bubonic plague, Yersinia pestis
- Paul-Louis Simond discovered in 1898 the role of the flea in the transmission of plague
- Institut Pasteur de Lille, and developed in 1921 the first effective anti-tuberculosis vaccine
- protozoans as disease agents (notably, his discovery of the malariahematozoon)
- Ilya Ilyich Mechnikov received the Nobel Prize in 1908 for contributions to the scientific understanding of the immune system
- poliomyelitisis due to a filterable virus
- Félix d'Herelle discovered in 1917 the bacteriophage, a virus that spread only inside bacteria
- antibodies and the complement system′s mechanisms of action
- Charles Nicolle received the Nobel prize in 1928 for explaining how typhus is transmitted, especially the role of the louse
- Jean Laigret developed in 1932 the first vaccine for yellow fever
- André Lwoff established in 1951 the existence of proviruses, a work honored by the 1965 Nobel Prize
- transcription regulation, a work honored by the 1965 Nobel Prize
- Pierre Lépine developed in 1955 one of the first anti-polio vaccines
- Jean-Pierre Changeux isolated in 1970 the first receptor to a neurotransmitter, the acetylcholine receptor.
- AIDSin 1983 and 1985; Montagnier and Barré-Sinoussi were honored by the 2008 Nobel Prize
A new age of
Since
Opening
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
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. : 68
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.[citation needed]
World War I and World War II
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,[3][4][5] "work of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, plague laboratory."[6]
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.[2]: 205 The general mobilization after France's declaration of war against Germany, in September 1939, emptied the Institute and significantly reduced its activities, as members of appropriate age and condition were recruited into the army, but the almost total absence of battles during the first months of the conflict helped maintain the sanitary situation on the front. After the occupation of France, the Germans never tried to gather information from the institute's research; their confidence in Germany's advantage in this field decreased their curiosity, and their only interest was in the serums and vaccines that it could provide to their troops or the European auxiliaries they recruited. This relative freedom allowed the institute to become, during the two years after the occupation, a pharmacy for the Resistance thanks to the initiative of Vallery-Radot, Pasteur's nephew. The Germans became suspicious of the institute's staff only after an outbreak of typhoid in a Wehrmacht division that was stationed near Paris before being sent to the Russian front.[2]: 209–210 The cause of the epidemic was later found to be due to a member of the Institute stealing a culture of the germ responsible for the disease and, with the collaboration of an accomplice, infecting a large quantity of butter used to feed German troops. The fact that the epidemic spread after the Germans sold some of the butter to civilians was proof that the illness's breakout was not caused by local water quality. Afterward, the German authorities ordered that the institute's stores containing microbial cultures could be opened only by authorized members; similar security problems also induced them to demand complete lists of the staff's names and functions; missing names caused the Germans to send two biologists, Dr. Wolmann and his wife, as well as other three lab assistants, to a concentration camp. The institute was not a location for German entrenchment even during the battles for Paris's liberation because of the honor and respect it commanded, as well as out of fear that involving it in any type of conflict might "free the ghosts of long defeated diseases".[2]: 213
Economical difficulties during the 1970s
At the end of 1973, the institute's economic status was so worrisome that its troubles aroused the public's interest: no one could believe that an institution that was to provide vaccines and serums for more than fifty million people could be undergoing such big financial problems, an institution that furthermore was believed to be under government protection and therefore shielded from bankruptcy. The causes of the decadence that brought the institute to financial ruin were numerous, but most of them were associated with its commercial and industrial activities and its management. This affected both the research and production branch: the research branch didn't receive enough funds and the production branch, which was losing market ground to the new private labs, was immobilized by the antiquated mechanical equipment.[citation needed]
In 1968 rabies reappeared in France after being previously eradicated in 1924. Despite the fact that it owed its original celebrity to the discovery of the rabies vaccine, the Pasteur institute was ultimately replaced by other pharmaceutical industries in the production of the vaccines. Despite the Pasteur institute's financial troubles, its members were able to produce over 400,000 doses of vaccine against the
In 1971 Jacques Monod announced a new era of modernization and development: this was symbolized by the construction of a new factory where all the production departments were to be reunited. Its construction cost forty-five million francs and the Government granted the institute a sum of twenty million francs to bridge the deficit, followed by the people's initiative to also accept a role in the division of the financial responsibilities.[2]: 258
COVID-19 pandemic
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Pasteur was the first institute in Europe to culture and sequence the genome of what was later named the
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.[11][12][13]
Accomplishments of the Institute's members
Roux's cure of diphtheria and studies on syphilis
Not long after the institute's inauguration, Roux, now less occupied in the fight against rabies, resumed in a new lab and with the help of a new colleague, Yersin, his experiments on diphtheria. This disease used to kill thousands of children every year: an associated condition was commonly called
Roux and Yersin grew the bacillus that causes it and studied, thanks to various experiments they did on rabbits, its pathogenic power and symptoms, like the paralysis of the respiratory muscles.[2]: 73 It is this last consequence of diphtheria that provided the two researchers with a clue to the nature of the disease since it is caused by an intoxication due to a toxin introduced into the organism by the bacillus, that while secreting this particular venom is able to multiply itself: they were therefore inclined to think that the bacillus owed its virulence to the toxin. After filtrating the microbial culture of the Corynebacterium diphtheriae and injecting it into the lab animals, they were able to observe all the typical signs of the sickness. Roux and Yersin established that they were dealing with a new type of bacillus, not only able to proliferate and abundantly reproduce itself, but also capable of spreading at the same time a powerful venom, and they deduced that it can play the role of antigen, that is if they could overcome the delicate moment of its injection, made especially dangerous by the toxin.[2]: 74
Some German researchers had also discovered the diphtheria toxin and were trying to immunize some guinea pigs through the use of a vaccine: one of them,
Roux needed to test the effectiveness of the product he elaborated on To test the serum, two groups of children were chosen from two different hospitals: in the first one, which received the serum, 338 out of 449 children survived, in the latter one, treated with the customary therapies, only 204 out of 520 survived. Once the results were made public by Le Figaro newspaper, a subscription fund was opened to raise the money needed to provide the Institute with the number of horses necessary to produce enough serum to satisfy the national demand.[2]: 82
After Duclaux's death, Roux took his place as head of the institute, and the last research he carried out was the one on syphilis, a dangerous disease because of its immediate effects and the hereditary repercussions that result from it. Despite Fournier’s considerable work, van Swieten’s liquid mercury was still the only known cure, although its results were doubtful and uncertain. The search for a stronger remedy against this disease was made more difficult because most animals are immune to it: it was thus not possible to experiment with possible cures and study their likely side effects.[2]: 128 The sexually transmittable Treponema pallidum (the syphilis germ), detected by two German biologists, Schaudinn and Hoffmann, affects only the human race – where it resides in sperm, ulceration, and cancers that it is able to cause – and, as it would later be discovered, some anthropoid apes, especially chimpanzees. Both Roux and Metchnikoff, following the discovery that this type of ape can be contaminated with the illness, contributed with their research in creating a vaccine, while Bordet and Wassermann elaborated a solution that was able to expose the germ's presence in human blood. Even though it was not yet a completely reliable solution, it represented progress compared to the previous medicines used against syphilis.[2]: 129
Metchnikoff's phagocytosis theory
Yersin's studies on the plague
Yersin, after his research with Roux, abruptly left the Institute for personal reasons. The news of a violent plague outburst in Yunman enabled Yersin to show his potential as he was summoned, as Pasteur's scholar, to conduct microbiological research of the disease. The plague he had to deal with was the
However it was
Calmette's and Guerin's anti-tuberculosis vaccine
By the beginning of the 20th century, improvement of living conditions and development of a more extensive conception of hygiene produced a slight regression in tuberculosis cases in France: nonetheless the institute's labs, like many other ones, kept trying to find among the Koch's bacillus many singularities the one that would allow them to find an antidote. Right after he had discovered the bacillus, Koch had tried in vain to create a vaccine against it, however, the injection of the filtrate he had prepared, later called tuberculin, had the effect of revealing who was phthisic from who was not by causing in the latter—and not in the former—fever and light trembling.
The institute's newspaper was filled at the time with articles regarding tuberculosis, some of which were written by
The environment deemed appropriate for the denaturation of the Mycobacterium bovis was a compost of potatoes cooked in the bile of an ox treated with glycerine, and Calmette re-inseminated it every three weeks for thirteen years while checking for an enfeeblement of the pathogenic power of the bacillus. Having finally lost completely its virulence, the bovine tuberculosis germ grown with their method was the principal prophylactic weapon against human tuberculosis, and it helped to reduce considerably the frequency of this disease.
While experimenting on chimpanzees in Kindia, Calmette also discovered that it can notably weaken some leprosy manifestations – its bacillus presents some similarities with Koch's.[2]: 186
Calmette's work in Saigon
In Saigon Albert Calmette also created the first overseas branch of the institute, where he produced an amount of smallpox and rabies vaccines sufficient to satisfy the needs of the population and started a study on venomous snakes, particularly cobras. During these studies, Calmette discovered that the power of the venom, as well as that of tetanus, could be countered by the use of alkaline hypochlorites, and was able therefore to create a serum, effective if injected right after the cobra's bite. Back in France, he acquired enough snakes to continue his work and create a serum for the local population.[2]: 98
Nicolle's work on epidemic typhus
The scientist and writer
Chantemesse's typhoid vaccine
During the summer of 1900, the extremely hot weather and scarcity of the water supply in Paris, usually ensured by the Ourcq channel and by the de la Dhuis aqueduct, forced the authorities to pump water directly from the Seine, which, despite filtering, led to a sudden and alarming outbreak of typhoid cases in Paris. The cause of the disease, a bacillus that was discovered almost twenty years before by the German bacteriologist Karl Joseph Eberth and that looks like a bodiless spider, was constantly present in this river and not even pouring extensive quantities of ozone and of lime permanganate into its water was enough to exterminate the bacteria.[2]: 111 The difficulty in creating a vaccine is caused by the nature of the germ's endotoxins. Unlike diphtheria, which releases toxins via exocytotic secretion, typhoid pathogens encapsulate endotoxins that survive even after the death of the bacillus.
After working in the rabies division of Rue Vaquelin and studying the microbe that causes dysentery, André Chantemesse collaborated with a younger bacteriologist, Georges-Fernand Widal. Together they were able to immunize guinea pigs by inoculating them with heat-treated dead bacteria, calling into question the notion that only weakened, not dead, bacteria can be used to immunize.[2]: 112 They concluded that a series of three or four early injections of such heat-inactivated bacteria can effectively inoculate against the development of the disease, as the endotoxins alone are sufficient to trigger the production of antibodies.[citation needed]
Fourneau and the Laboratory of Medicinal Chemistry
Regarding
The Hospital Pasteur
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.[2]: 118
Duclaux work in the chemical biology department
The work done in the new pavilion by Duclaux clarified how the human body accomplished some of its vital functions and discovered the role of a
Pasteur's museum and tomb
The Musée Pasteur (Pasteur Museum)[20] 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.
List of international locations
Today, the Institut Pasteur houses 100 research units and close to 2,700 people, including 500 permanent
The international network is present in the following cities and countries:
Research centers
As of 2008, the Institut Pasteur has eleven major research departments:
- Cell Biology and Infection,
- Developmental Biology,
- Genomes and Genetics,
- Immunology,
- Infection and Epidemiology,
- Microbiology,
- Neuroscience,
- Parasitology and Mycology,
- Structural Biology and Chemistry,
- Virology,
- Computational Biology
There are also non-research departments devoted to records and archives maintenance, maintenance of historical micro-organism cultures, publications, and the library.
In addition to the isolation of
Currently, an extensive line of research aims at determining the complete genome sequences of several organisms of medical importance, in the hope of finding new therapeutic approaches. The institute has contributed to genome-sequencing projects of the common yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae, an organism which was so important for Louis Pasteur's history), completed in 1996, Bacillus subtilis completed in 1997, Mycobacterium tuberculosis completed in 1998.
Teaching center
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
Epidemiological reference center
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
Vaccines and diagnostic products
Production and marketing of
Structure and support
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.
In popular culture
The book
References
- ^ "Institut Pasteur". www.pasteur.fr. 6 September 2016.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u Gascar, Pierre. La strada di Pasteur: storia di una rivoluzione scientifica.
- ^ Simard, Albert Charles Joseph (1921). La réaction de fixation de l'alexine: son application au diagnostic sérologique de la peste (in French). Maloine. (Faculté de Médecine de Paris, vol. 483)
- ^ Paris, Office international d'hygiène publique (1921). Bulletin mensuel (in French). Office international d'hygiène publique. p. 964.
- ^ Medicine (U.S.), National Library of (1955). National Library of Medicine Catalog. Judd & Detweiler. p. 357.
- ^ Catalogue des thèses de doctorat soutenues devant les universités françaises (in French). Université de Paris I, Bibliothèque de la Sorbonne. 1925. p. 491.
- ^ "Institut Pasteur isolates strains of coronavirus 2019-nCoV detected in France". EurekAlert!. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
- ^ "SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 epidemic: the Institut Pasteur's response, scientific research and discoveries in 2020". Institut Pasteur. 16 February 2021.
- ^ "Whole genome of novel coronavirus, 2019-nCoV, sequenced". ScienceDaily.
- ^ a b "France's Pasteur Institute on Front Lines of Africa's COVID Response Amid Resistance | Voice of America - English". www.voanews.com. 14 May 2020. Retrieved 7 June 2021.
- ^ "French self-esteem hit after Pasteur Institute abandons Covid vaccine". the Guardian. 26 January 2021. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
- ^ "France's Pasteur Institute abandons its principal Covid-19 vaccine project". France 24. 25 January 2021. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
- ^ Woo, Yiming (20 November 2020). "Institut Pasteur to keep working on three COVID-19 vaccines". Reuters. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
- S2CID 227157702.
- ^ a b "The Cambodian lab working to unravel how COVID-19 spreads and grows". Southeast Asia Globe. 2 April 2020. Retrieved 4 June 2021.
- PMID 8855211. Retrieved 18 May 2014.
- ^ "Biographical Sketch Hélène Sparrow (1891-1970)". Archives de l'Institut Pasteur. Archived from the original on 14 May 2014. Retrieved 18 May 2014.
- ^ Jean-Pierre Fourneau, « Ernest Fourneau, fondateur de la chimie thérapeutique française : Feuillets d'album », 1987, Revue d'histoire de la pharmacie, n° 275, pp. 335-355.
- ^ Marcel Delépine, « Ernest Fourneau (1872-1949) : Sa vie et son œuvre », extrait du Bulletin de la Société chimique de France, Paris, Masson, s.d. (ca 1950).
- ^ "Institut Pasteur". Archived from the original on 4 August 2004.
- ^ "Institut Pasteur throughout the world". 24 August 2016. Retrieved 4 September 2021.
- ^ a b c "Institut Pasteurs International Network". Retrieved 4 September 2021.
- ^ "Hellenic Pasteur Institute, Greece". Retrieved 23 July 2022.
- ^ "Istituto Pasteur-Rome, Italy". Retrieved 4 September 2021.
- ^ "Institut Pasteur Fiocruz". 19 June 2017. Retrieved 4 September 2021.
- ^ "Institut Pasteur de Guadeloupe". Retrieved 4 September 2021.
- ^ "Institut Pasteur Montevideo, Uruguay". Retrieved 4 September 2021.
- ^ "Institut Pasteur Of Shanghai, Chinese Academy Of Sciences". Retrieved 21 June 2015.
- ^ "Inspiring the next generation of scientists". Retrieved 21 June 2015.
- ^ "HKU-Pasteur Research Centre". Retrieved 21 June 2015.
- ^ "Pasteur Institute of India". Retrieved 4 September 2021.
Bibliography
- Gascar, Pierre. La Strada di Pasteur, Jaca Book, Milano 1991. ISBN 88-16-40291-1.
- Hage, Jerald and Jonathon Mote. "Transformational Organizations and a Burst of Scientific Breakthroughs," Social Science History (2010) 34#1 pp 13–46. online
- Reynolds, Moira Davison. How Pasteur Changed History: The Story of Louis Pasteur and the Institut Pasteur (1994)
- Seidel, Atherton. "Chemical research at the Institut Pasteur," Journal of Chemical Education, (1926) 3#11, p 1217+ DOI: 10.1021/ed003p1217
- Weindling, Paul. "Scientific elites and laboratory organization in fin de siècle Paris and Berlin: The Institut Pasteur and Robert Koch's Institute for Infectious Diseases compared," in Andrew Cunningham and Perry Williams, eds. The Laboratory Revolution in Medicine (Cambridge University Press, 1992) pp: 170–88.
External links
- Official website
- Monod, J.: The Institut Pasteur. The Nobel Foundation.
- 1890-07-05: M. Pasteur in his cabinet at theInstitut Pasteur PARIS.
- Annales de l'Institut Pasteur in BnF