David Bikard, laureate of the French Academy of Sciences' Richard Lounsbery Award

The Richard Lounsbery Award, established in 1979 by Vera Lounsbery in memory of her husband, is funded by the Richard Lounsbery Foundation in Washington. It is awarded by the French Academy of Sciences and the US National Academy of Sciences (NAS). The recipient, a French or American scientist aged under 45, receives $100,000 (including $25,000 to cover one or more reciprocal research visits) for achievements in biology or medicine. The award is given in alternate years to French or American scientists.

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The laureate of this year's Richard Lounsbery Award is David Bikard, Head of the Synthetic Biology Unit, for his research into the interactions between bacteria and bacteriophages, viruses capable of infecting and destroying bacteria. He particularly focuses on the defense mechanisms developed by bacteria to resist bacteriophages, including the CRISPR-Cas molecular systems. He uses these systems as genetic engineering tools to explore the workings of bacteria in the microbiota and develop novel targeted therapeutic strategies. 

 

Laurence Mulard, laureate of the Léon Velluz Award presented by the French Academy of Sciences

The Léon Velluz Award is a biennial award worth €10,000. It is awarded without any consideration of age, position or nationality to a scientist who has made a discovery in organic chemistry or biochemistry with potential human therapeutic applications.

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The 2026 Léon Velluz Award went to Laurence Mulard, Head of the Chemistry of Biomolecules Unit, for her research on microbial sugars and their applications for vaccines, therapeutics or diagnostics. Her most advanced work, which combines molecular and translational research and includes clinical phase trials, focuses on the development of original vaccine candidates based on the use of synthetic sugars for diarrheal infections caused by Shigella bacteria. More generally, her research is helping to open up new avenues for the prevention and treatment of bacterial infections.
 

Sigolène Meilhac, laureate of the Antoine Lacassagne Award

The Antoine Lacassagne Prize was set up in 1977 by the Collège de France to recognize research and encourage the careers of young French and international researchers in biology.

It was founded when Antoine Lacassagne, holder of the Experimental Medicine Chair at the Collège de France from 1951 to 1954, donated the prize money he had been awarded by the United Nations for his research on cancer.

The Prize includes an invitation for the laureate to present his or her research at a seminar at the Collège de France which traditionally coincides with François Jacob Day, held by the Biology Institute at the beginning of each academic year. The winner receives a prize of 6,000 euros and a bronze medal from the Collège de France.

The laureate is selected at the meeting of the Assembly of the Collège de France in June, on a proposal from the biology professors.

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This year, Sigolène Meilhac, head of the Heart Morphogenesis Unit, has been awarded the 2026 Antoine Lacassagne Prize, for her work on the mechanisms underlying the right-left asymmetry of the heart, which is essential for the establishment of the dual blood circulation system.

By developing new methods to quantify and model the structure of the heart and to detect molecular asymmetries in the embryo, her work has redefined the concept of the emergence of right-left laterality in the embryo. It has revealed the developmental origins of conditions such as heterotaxy and situs inversus and has led to the identification of new genes involved in rare cardiac malformations.

Find out more about the ceremony on November 4, 2026

Find out more about the Antoine Lacassagne Award

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Cassandra Koh and Timothée Bruel, winners of the 2026 Ágnes Ullmann Award

In accordance with the wishes of Ágnes Ullmann, the renowned Institut Pasteur scientist who passed away in 2019, an award has been set up in her name to recognize the work of young scientists in molecular biology or microbiology.

The aim of the Ágnes Ullmann Prize aim is to encourage early career scientists. It is awarded to two scientists (one female and one male) for their outstanding contribution to research in life sciences at an Institut Pasteur laboratory. 

The two winners for the 2026 edition are: 

• Cassandra Koh, researcher in the Viruses and RNA Interference Unit, led byCarla Saleh
   

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"Beyond those that pose public health threats such as West Nile, Chikungunya, or dengue viruses, mosquitoes also carry hundreds of newly discovered viruses. We are just beginning to study how these viral communities affect a mosquito’s ability to transmit diseases. 
Through collaborations with members of the Pasteur network, I study these hidden viral communities to understand how mosquitoes contend with multiple virus infections and why only some viruses are transmitted to humans. 
A vector biologist and a virologist, I lead an interdisciplinary research program investigating the evolutionary relationships between mosquitoes and their viruses. This helps us anticipate current and future threats from mosquito-transmitted diseases as climate change progresses."

• Timothée Bruel, Head of Antiviral Activities of Antibodies group in the Virus and Immunity Unit, led by Olivier Schwartz

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“My research seeks to understand how antibodies block viruses, and how those viruses escape them. Working first on HIV-1 and then on SARS-CoV-2, we have shown that antibodies do more than neutralise viruses: they also tag infected cells and viral particles for destruction, and mobilise other players of the immune system, such as complement. These findings pave the way for vaccines and antibody therapies that are more effective and more durable in the face of viral evolution.”

Hugo Veysset and Nuria Ros i Rocher, winners of the 2026 Institut Pasteur Young Scientist Award

In 2018, the Institut Pasteur introduced the Institut Pasteur Young Scientist Prize. The award, established to mark the Institut Pasteur's 130th anniversary, is presented each year to a PhD student and a postdoctoral fellow who were first authors of high-level research papers published during the year. 

The 2026 winners are: 

• Hugo Veysset, PhD student in theMolecular diversity of microbes five-year group (G5), led by Aude Bernheim.
   

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“During my PhD in evolutionary genomics, carried out in Aude Bernheim’s laboratory, I studied how certain innate immunity mechanisms in animals, including humans, are related to defense mechanisms that bacteria use against their own viruses, the bacteriophages. My work notably led to the discovery of a human gene that is a cousin of a family of bacterial immune genes. In collaboration with a team at the Institut Curie, we were able to show that this gene also contributes to key pathways of innate immunity in humans. This emerging field of research, known as “ancestral immunity,” is reshaping our understanding of the evolution of the immune system and paving the way for new therapies, for example in autoimmune diseases such as lupus.”

• Nuria Ros i Rocher, postdoctoral fellow in theEvolutionary cell biology and evolution of morphogenesis Unit, led by Thibaut Brunet.
   

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“Multicellularity (the ability of cells to live and cooperate together) has evolved independently several times throughout evolution. In this study, we show that the choanoflagellate Choanoeca flexa, a microscopic relative of animals, can form multicellular colonies in two ways: through cell division and through the aggregation of independent cells, even combining both strategies. We explore how this organism adapts to life in its natural habitat in the Caribbean island of Curaçao: small, temporary pools of seawater replenished by waves and rain, where evaporation can rapidly increase salinity and change environmental conditions. These fluctuations influence how cells assemble and switch between unicellular and multicellular stages. Our findings reveal a remarkably flexible strategy for building multicellular life and open new perspectives on the possible evolutionary paths towards multicellularity in animals.” 

Marion Guérin, winner in the 15th Bristol Myers Squibb Foundation call for proposals

Every year, the Bristol Myers Squibb (BMS) Foundation awards funding to several scientists to support and facilitate their work in the field of cancer immunotherapy. It supports four types of research through its calls for proposals: basic research, clinical and translational research, pediatric oncology, and public health and healthcare systems. 

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This year, the BMS Foundation selected six winners in the "Basic research" call for proposals, including Marion Guérin, Researcher in the Dynamics of Immune Responses Unit,  selected for her project entitled ”Design of an immunocytokine targeting draining lymph nodes to enhance the efficacy of PD-1 inhibitors”, which explores a new strategy to boost the efficacy of cancer immunotherapy. 

The call for proposals involves projects lasting for up to two years aimed at developing knowledge in cancer immunotherapy and/or improving treatment for patients receiving immunotherapy. 

Find out more about the Marion Guérin’s project (in French) 

See the interview with Marion Guérin (in French) 

Find out more (in French)

Seven Institut Pasteur scientists selected in the ANR’s 2026 ‘Young Researchers’ call for proposals

Established in 2006, the “Young Researchers” programme of the French National Research Agency (ANR) aims to support projects led by young researchers or lecturer-researchers in order to encourage them to take on responsibility, enable them to develop their own research topics independently, and give them the opportunity to demonstrate their capacity for innovation at an early stage.

In 2026, seven young scientists from the Institut Pasteur obtained funding for their research projects: 

Image		Keith Doelling,head of the Human and Artificial Perception five-year group, for the MusicSPARK project: Musical Surprise Prediction And Reward drives Knowledge building.
Image		Ignacio Fernandez, researcher in the Structural Virology Unit, led by Félix Rey, for the FUSIONARA project: Structural studies on the fusion protein from an endogenous retrovirus involved in aging and cancer.
Image		Claire Morvan, lecturer in the Pathogenesis of Bacterial Anaerobes Laboratory, led by Bruno Dupuy, for the FAcile project: Impact of gut Fatty Acids on Clostridioides difficile life cycle.
Image		Ottavia Romoli, researcher in the Viruses and RNA Interference Unit, led by Carla Saleh, for the TIRAMISU project: Towards understanding the InteRActions between the MosquIto, itS microbiota and arbovirUses.
Image		Jacques Serizay, researcher in the Spatial Regulation of Genomes Unit, led by Romain Koszul, for the CHROMMOD project: Multi-modal modeling of chromatin organization in microeukaryote.
Image		Aimee Taylor, researcher in the Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Analytics Unit, led by Michael White, for the UniGEM project: Unified Inference for Genomic Epidemiology of Malaria.
Image		Camila Valenzuela Montenegro, researcher in the Dynamics of Host-Pathogen Interactions Unit, led by Jost Enninga, for the iNTSideCells project: Intracellular lifestyles of invasive non-typhoidal Salmonella (iNTS) in epithelial cells.

To find out more about the funding opportunities available for your research projects, please contact the Grants Office: gonational@pasteur.fr