Raphaël Laurenceau*, a research associate in David Bikard's unit, recently returned from a two-month mini sabbatical at the UCSF-affiliated Gladstone Institutes. He set off with a well-defined project and returned with three promising scientific leads, invaluable new contacts and a much closer collaboration. His experience is a perfect opportunity to review how the tool developed by the International Affairs Department (DAI)** contributed to the scientist and team's project.

Mini sabbaticals: moving up a gear

Taking a mini sabbatical is not leaping into the unknown. It is a tool developed by the DAI to turn an existing collaboration with UCSF – often confined to online interactions – into an effective scientific accelerator. The aim is to offer a campus-based researcher a two or three month immersion program at UCSF to advance projects that are inevitably slow-moving because of distance.

Raphaël had already worked with Seth Shipman's lab at the Gladstone Institutes in San Francisco, on a publication in Nature Biotechnology, relating to a shared research topic: DGRs, or diversity-generating retroelements – mechanisms naturally found in certain bacteriophages that the researchers are learning to repurpose as targeted mutagenesis tools, with potential applications for biotechnology.

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“To be honest, I didn't expect to do so much, it all went so fast!"

Upon arrival at the Gladstone Institutes, Raphaël had set himself two main goals: (I) increase the efficiency of his mutagenesis system, and (ii) test its compatibility with different bacterial species from those usually used in the lab. Both produced encouraging initial results but which were sound enough to open up new leads to be pursued in Paris.
His involvement in the host team gave rise to a third project: the development of a platform for directed evolution, a technique that consists of reproducing and accelerating the natural protein evolution in the lab in a controlled manner.

In addition to the close collaborative dynamic right from the start, one highlight of his stay was the presentation of a seminar to his American peers at the Gladstone Institutes. 
This had a tangible impact for him, with new contacts made and discussions with researchers in the field that he would never get to meet in Europe. Mini sabbaticals provide opportunities that would just not be possible with usual collaborations.
 
The benefits of the DAI's mini sabbatical tool 

The results are still preliminary but offer real prospects. Research on mutagenesis and its extension to other bacterial species will be carried on at the Institut Pasteur. 

As far as directed evolution is concerned, if Seth Shipman's lab starts out on its own retroelements, a joint publication is clearly on the cards: two teams, two different systems, and the same methodological approach – an ideal scenario for a structured scientific collaboration.

The two teams are continuing to keep in touch, and the mini sabbatical will at least have accomplished the most important thing: to turn a promising collaboration into something real, tangible and lasting.

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“This can be a very useful tool, whether you are a postdoc, research associate or lab head, provided there is a valid reason behind it.”

 

Raphaël's advice to future applicants
The open format of a mini sabbatical is a real advantage. Two months is a good length. It is long enough to produce tangible results, but short enough not to lose touch with your everyday routine in Paris. What is the true recipe for success? Choose a UCSF laboratory and/or affiliated institutes whose techniques align with your own to facilitate onboarding and focus on the scientific content straight off. 

*Raphaël Laurenceau is a CNRS research associate at the Institut Pasteur in the Synthetic Biology Unit led by David Bikard. He is a microbiologist specializing in phage biology. His mini sabbatical was spent in Dr. Seth Shipman’s laboratory at the Gladstone Institute in San Francisco from mid-May to mid-July 2026. This stay was made possible under the mini sabbatical/UCSF scheme run by the Institut Pasteur International Affairs Department. 
 
**For further information about the mini sabbatical scheme with UCSF and/or its affiliated institutes, you can see other examples (read the article on March 20, 2025) and opportunities open to researchers on campus, contact the DAI Regional Policies Unit(geo_di@pasteur.fr).