Vaccinology

Background in microbiology, immunology, public health

Connaissances en microbiology, immunology, santé publique.

Armelle Phalipon
Armelle Phalipon is a microbiologist leading a group within the Molecular Microbial Pathogenesis Unit, INSERM U786, at the Institut Pasteur, Paris, France. Working in the field of diarrheal diseases, her team is interested in deciphering the cross-talks between enteropathogenic bacteria and the host immune system. The main current studies aim at deciphering how Shigella, the bacterium responsible for bacillary dysentery, impacts on the development of the short-term, poorly effective protective immunity elicited in response to infection. Armelle Phalipon has a long-standing interest in combining fundamental and applied research. Indeed, in collaboration with Dr. Laurence Mulard (Institut Pasteur, Paris), she has designed a new type of Shigella vaccine candidate that will enter a phase 1 clinical trial in 2016 for proof of concept in humans. She is co-founder and co-director with Frédéric Tangy of the first International Vaccinology Course launched at the Pasteur Institute in 2008.

Frédéric Tangy
Frédéric Tangy, PhD, Dr.Sc., Director of Research at CNRS, is the head of the Viral Genomics and Vaccination Research Unit at Institut Pasteur, Paris (CNRS UMR-3569). After his PhD in 1980 and his Dr. Sc. in 1984 at Paris VI University he made his career as a virologist first at CNRS then at Institut Pasteur. He is co-director of the international Vaccinology course of Institut Pasteur, vice-president of the Scientific Council of Institut Pasteur, and member of ASM, ESGT, IAS, SFI. He is the author of 110 publications in international scientific journals and 19 international patents. In the recent years, he has developed two research programs: 1) generation of polyvalent viral attenuated vaccines based on a vector derived from measles vaccine. This project extends from the design of antigens and generation of recombinant vectors, to preclinical and clinical development in the field of HIV, dengue, chikungunya and malaria vaccines. 2) The second project investigates the interactions between viral and host proteins in a systematic way using functional genomic approaches such as high-throughput cloning, yeast two-hybrid, deep sequencing and high-throughput drug screening. This project aims at understanding at a molecular level the interactions between viral and host proteins and RNA in the field of paramyxoviruses. These observations lead to identify new drug targets and new determinants of pathogenicity/attenuation.