The Institut Pasteur is a private, not-for-profit French foundation based in Paris, dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases and vaccines.

Created in 1888 thanks to an international public subscription, it is named after Louis Pasteur1, its founder and first director, who in 1885 developed the first vaccine against rabies.

For over a century, the Institut Pasteur has been at the forefront of the fight against infectious diseases. In 1983, this international research organisation was the first to isolate the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), the virus that causes acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Over the years, it has been responsible for revolutionary discoveries that have enabled medicine to control virulent diseases such as diphtheria, tetanus, tuberculosis, poliomyelitis, influenza, yellow fever, epidemic plague, hepatitis B and AIDS.