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Launched in 2025, the Pasteur Technology Training (P2T) program funds short-term mobility placements (approximately one month) for young Pasteur scientists (PhD students and postdoctoral researchers) in leading laboratories outside the Institut Pasteur. In 2025, eight Institut Pasteur scientists had the opportunity to benefit from this programme, which aims to:

1. Develop expertise in a cutting-edge technology;
2. Bring this technology back to their home team and make it available across the campus;
3. Transform the host laboratory into a long-term scientific partner.

Here are the reviews of the eight 2025 laureates, who describe the skills they were able to develop during their stay, the technological transfers they were able to make available to the Institut Pasteur upon their return, the relationships they built with their host laboratory, and, finally, the impact this research stay has had on their professional careers.

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Antonio El Helou, a PhD student in the Signalling and Receptor Dynamics unit (Department of Neuroscience), co-supervised by Nicolas Wolff and Anna Sartori-Rupp, worked in Jürgen Plitzko’s laboratory at the Max Planck Institute for Biochemistry (Germany):

• Project title: Towards a better molecular understanding of hearing.

• Skills acquired: Mastery of cryo-FIB (cryo focused ion beam) milling on Titan Krios, Hydra, and Aquilos, a rare and highly sought-after expertise.

• Knowledge transfer: Training of the NanoImaging platform staff at Institut Pasteur and its users for the preparation of cryogenic lamellae.

• Collaboration with the host laboratory: Strong links with the Max Planck Institute of Biochemistry and joint projects in structural imaging (electron and X-ray tomographies).

• Impact on Antonio’s career: Multiple technological expertise, combining super-resolution fluorescence (STED), cryo-ET (cryo electron tomography), and FIB, essential for in situ structural biology projects.
  
  Find out more about his P2T experience

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Carolina Alta Figueiredo, a PhD student in the Pathogenesis of Anaerobic Bacteria unit (Department of Microbiology), supervised by Bruno Dupuy, has joined Meera Unnikrishnan’s laboratory at the University of Warwick (United Kingdom):

• Project title: Better, faster, stronger: Clostridioides difficile biofilm formation in a complex gut cellular model

• Skills acquired: Proficiency with Vertical Diffusion Chambers, Transwell culture, and immunolabeling under anaerobic conditions

• Knowledge transfer: Introduction of a more realistic bacterium–intestinal epithelium interaction model on the Institut Pasteur campus

• Collaboration with the host laboratory: Strengthened partnership with the University of Warwick and development of joint grant applications 

• Impact on Carolina’s career: Enhanced expertise in complex infection models and resilience in project management — valuable assets for both academic research and R&D
  
  Find out more about her P2T experience

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Daniel Wikar, a PhD student in the UtechS MSBio (Technology Department), supervised by Marc Lavigne, undertook his training in Jean-Christophe Andrau’s laboratory at the Institut de Génétique Moléculaire de Montpellier (IGMM):

• Project title: Characterization of cellular guanine quadruplex (G4) formation by the G4Access protocol


• Skills acquired: Mastery of G4Access, a probe-free genomic mapping method.


• Knowledge transfer: Willingness to democratize the technique on campus for oncology, neurobiology, and infectious diseases.


• Collaboration with the host laboratory: Partnership with the IGMM and search for complementary bioinformatics expertise.


• Impact on Daniel’s career: A dual experimental and analytical skill set that enriches Daniel’s thesis project and his employability in functional genomics.
  
  Find out more about his P2T experience

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Eloi Vincent, a PhD student in the Architecture and Dynamics of Biological Macromolecules unit (Department of Structural Biology and Chemistry), supervised by Marc Delarue, has completed his research stay in John Chaput’s laboratory at the University of California, Irvine (USA):

• Project title: Directed evolution of polymerases by fluorescence-activated droplet sorting (FADS) for the synthesis of highly modified RNA


• Skills acquired: Full autonomy in RNA polymerase engineering and microfluidics (fluorescence-activated droplet sorting).


• Knowledge transfer: Direct expertise directly leveraged for an ANR project on glycosylated aptamers (PICNA-Apt), involving two other DBSC teams on campus led by Marcel Hollenstein and Laurence Mullard, respectively.


• Collaboration with the host laboratory: Active partnership with John Chaput’s team (UC Irvine); a joint patent application has been filed.


• Impact on Eloi’s career: A first immersion into the American biotech ecosystem and a project management methodology that Eloi intends to apply in his future professional career.
  
  Find out more about the main results described in the publication on bioRxiv

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Jacques Serizay, a research associate (recruited in 2025) in the Spatial regulation of genomes unit (Department of Genomes and Genetics), supervised by Romain Koszul, completed his scientific stay with Stefano Mangiola’s group at the South Australian ImmunoGENomics Cancer Institute (Adelaide, Australia): 

• Project title: Integration of single-cell multi-omics data into artificial intelligence applications


• Skills acquired: Development of a heterogeneous GNN (Graph Neural Network) in PyTorch Geometric to integrate scATAC, scRNA-seq, and chromatin interaction data (Hi-C).

• Knowledge transfer: Creation of an interpretable deep-learning pipeline for digital cellular modeling, in connection with the Institut Pasteur Bioinformatics HUB.


• Collaboration with the host laboratory: Regular collaboration with Stefano Mangiola and open-science code sharing.


• Impact on Jacques’s career: A clear acceleration toward a researcher profile in AI applied to biology (i.e., recruitment to a research associate position in 2025), with an Australian network and a strong commitment to training.
  
  Find out more about his P2T experience

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Marie Granger-Rivière, a PhD student in the Epigenetic Biological Chemistry unit (Department of Structural Biology and Chemistry), supervised by Paola Arimondo, undertook her research stay in Eva Kowalinski’s laboratory at the EMBL in Grenoble:

• Project title: Characterization and therapeutic potential of tRNA methyltransferases

• Skills acquired: production, purification, crystallization, and biophysical assays of proteins, with an introduction to cryo-EM and molecular visualization.

• Knowledge transfer: transfer of techniques, equipment, and knowledge related to METTL6 and RNA methyltransferases to Institut Pasteur, necessary for the design of chemical probes and their evaluation on the enzyme. Theoretical knowledge acquired enabling more effective structural biology collaborations within the campus.

• Collaboration with the host laboratory: emerging partnership with the Kowalinski group and preparation of an ANR-DFG project.

• Impact on Marie’s career: a successful bridge between chemistry and biology, strengthening her PhD project and her ability to lead European collaborations at this interface. 
  
  Find out more about her P2T experience 

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Samuel Donaire Carpio, a PhD student in the Virus Sensing and Signaling team (Department of Virology), supervised by Vincent Caval, had the opportunity to undertake his training in Jeffrey Johnson’s laboratory at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai (New York):

• Project title: Use of high-throughput proteomic approaches to characterize molecular interactions between bats and poorly characterized viruses infecting them

• Skills acquired: Participation in a complete Orbitrap mass spectrometry workflow, from biological sample generation to bioinformatic analysis.

• Knowledge transfer: Samuel thus becomes a member of the Department capable of reducing reliance on external proteomics service providers

• Collaboration with the host laboratory: This structured partnership relies on complementary expertise: Institut Pasteur generates and prepares biological samples, while Dr. Jeffrey Johnson’s laboratory (Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, NY) handles mass spectrometry acquisition and bioinformatic analysis of interactomes. This ongoing collaboration spans several years and has already yielded joint publications.

• Impact on Samuel’s career: A rare positioning at the intersection of virology, proteomics, and data science, alongside a clear commitment to pursuing a postdoctoral fellowship in the United States. The grant also allowed Samuel to partially fund his attendance at the 32nd International Symposium on Hepatitis C Virus, Flaviviruses and Related Viruses (HCV-Flavi 2026) in Copenhagen, where he will present his results as an oral presentation.
  
  Find out more about his P2T experience 

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Sonia Nicchi, a Postdoctoral researcher in the Biology of Intracellular Bacteria unit (Department of Microbiology), supervised by Carmen Buchrieser, undertook her P2T training in Michael Zimmermann’s laboratory at EMBL in Heidelberg (Germany):

• Project title: Exploration of speckle and paraspeckle dynamics during Legionella pneumophila infection

• Skills acquired: Experience in the STED workflow, from sample preparation to image acquisition on a Leica Stellaris 8 Falcon.

• Knowledge transfer: First atlas of speckles/paraspeckles in Legionella-infected macrophages, planned for sharing at the Institut Pasteur NanoImaging Platform.

• Collaboration with the host laboratory: Active exchange with the Zimmermann group to develop a dedicated analysis pipeline.

• Impact on Sonia’s career: Enhanced expertise in advanced imaging of host-pathogen interactions, opening up international career opportunities.
  
  Find out more about her P2T experience