An International Network
Missions of the Network's Instituts Pasteur
The IPIN'S Institutions
Beyond the International Network: regional centres

An International Network

The Institut Pasteur International Network (IPIN) is made up of 25 institutions spread out across five continents and unites 8,500 people, most of whom are recruited locally. An original organisation and unique in the world, the IPIN is one of the rare examples of a network that operates on an international scale. Its goal is to see the three Pasteur missions through successfully: research, public health, and education, in the service of each of the Institut Pasteur's home countries.

The Institut Pasteur's international mission dates back to its creation in 1887. The contributions that permitted the founding of the Institut Pasteur in Paris came from many countries across the world.

Louis Pasteur and his collaborators shared a common ideal: to enable the largest number of countries to benefit from scientific discoveries in the fight against infectious diseases, which were responsible for considerable devastation. In this way, Pasteur scientists in the institution's earliest days travelled around the world to study and combat epidemics. The first Institut Pasteur outside of France was then created in 1891 in Saigon.

An international Pasteur scientific community has gradually been formed beyond the borders. All the institutes signed a general declaration of scientific cooperation, a kind of network charter.

United by the same values, the majority of institutes are independent from the Institut Pasteur in Paris. Falling under the authority of the health officials of their respective countries, they belong voluntarily to this informal network, which has a major goal: scientific research in the service of human health.

The training of foreign scientists, managers and technicians is another important international Pasteur activity, taking place in Paris in the Education Centre of the Institut Pasteur (more than 240 students every year from 45 countries) and in its laboratories (854 interns from 71 countries); as well as in different countries, either in the International Network's institutes or through the courses and lectures given each year throughout the world by Pasteur scientists.

Communication between the IPIN's different institutions is strengthened year after year, and improvement in the means of communication (like the Internet) has greatly facilitated it. Cross-sector programmes are being developed, forming micro-networks of specialised research, in which several institutions join together to carry out particular research. While the Instituts Pasteur are anxious to participate in improving the health of each country's population, the combining of their expertise through inter-institutional collaborations contributes to developing knowledge within the international scientific community.

Missions of the Network's Instituts Pasteur

Interventional Epidemiology

The Institutes of the Network are often on the front line for research concerning epidemics and any new or unknown outward pathological symptoms.
This enters into the framework of their public health missions, in aid of national, even regional communities. Numerous laboratories are national or international reference centres (transmissible disease observatories centralising information in collaboration with the World Health Organisation), and they participate in national programmes combating infectious diseases (such as malaria, AIDS, STDs, tuberculosis, and dengue.)

Microbiological Surveillance/Monitoring Network

In the context of emerging or re-emerging infectious diseases, it is essential to understand the mechanisms on which the appearance of an epidemic situation or the spread of a new pathogenic agent depends in order to set up prevention programmes. Prior to epidemic phenomena, the Institutes' investigation revolves around the environment, relations between pathogenic agents and their reservoirs, and their transmission channels. This is a matter of understanding or anticipating the emergence or re-emergence of certain infectious diseases.

Research Programmes

Research programmes are often collaborative, linking different local or regional organisations (e.g. hospitals or universities), several network institutions among themselves, French national agencies (ANRS, IRD), or international agencies (EU, WHO). The numerous topics addressed include arbovirus diseases, viral hemorrhagic fevers, retrovirus infections and AIDS, viral hepatitis, tuberculosis, plague, infectious diarrhoea, food hygiene, malaria, leishmaniasis, and cryptococcosis.

Training of Local Scientists

Local scientists are trained who will remain in the country: not only as Institute personnel or health officials, but also as field staff, technicians or students, who can then apply their knowledge in other national or regional organisations. This training expresses the demand of countries and comes in addition to local university training.

Quality Control

Quality control was introduced in the Network to accomplish the accreditation or certification of all of the Laboratories, whether they were for biologic analysis, food hygiene or research. The objective is to get an international survey of the areas of excellence developed in each Institute.

The IPIN'S institutions

25 institutions spread out over five continents
Total staff: 8,500 people

Africa and Indian Ocean

Institut Pasteur of Algeria (founded in 1894)
Institut Pasteur of Bangui, Central African Republic (founded in 1961)
Pasteur Centre of Cameroon (founded in 1959)
CERMES, Niger (founded in 1978)
Institut Pasteur, Ivory Coast (founded in 1972)
Institut Pasteur of Dakar, Senegal (founded in 1923)
Institut Pasteur in Madagascar (founded in 1898)
Institut Pasteur in Morocco (founded in 1911)
Institut Pasteur in Tunis, Tunisia (founded in 1893)

Americas

Institut Pasteur of Guadeloupe (founded in 1948)
Institut Pasteur of French Guyana (founded in 1940)

Asia

Institut Pasteur of Cambodia (rebuilt in 1995)
National Institute of Hygiene and Epidemiology of Hanoi, Vietnam (fonunded in 1923)
Institut Pasteur in Ho Chi Minh Ville, Vietnam (founded in 1891)
Institut Pasteur of Iran (founded in 1920)
Institut Pasteur of Nha Trang, Vietnam (founded in 1895)

Europe

Institut Cantacuzene, Romania (founded in 1901)
Institut Pasteur Hellenic, Greece (founded in 1919)
Institut Pasteur in Rome, Italia (founded in 1976)
Institut Pasteur in Saint-Petersburg, Russia (founded in 1923)
Institut Pasteur in Brussels, Belgium (founded in 1901)
Institut Pasteur in Lille, France (founded in 1894)
Institut Pasteur, Paris, France (founded in 1887)
Stephan Angeloff Institute of Microbiology, Bulgaria

Oceania

Institut Pasteur of New Caledonia (founded in 1954)

Beyond the International Network: regional centres

Regional centres aiming to reinforce the activity of the Instituts Pasteur in different regions of the world are now being developed fully.

Asia

A significant regional centre has in the past few years been considerably strengthened in Asia, where six Instituts Pasteur are located (Cambodia, China, South Korea, and Vietnam).

The Hong Kong University-Pasteur Research Centre was created in 2000 and is devoted to the public health problems of the region (such as SARS and other respiratory diseases, and hepatitis C). An Institut Pasteur in South Korea, whose goal, thanks to postgenomic programmes, is to develop new therapeutic approaches in the field of infectious diseases and cancer, was then created in December 2003. Today, the creation of the Institut Pasteur of Shanghai-Chinese Academy of Sciences is opening up an era of growing scientific relations between the Institut Pasteur and China, and is reinforcing the already numerous collaborations between this country and the Institut Pasteur in Paris. Finally, an education and research programme is being carried out in Thailand with three universities (Prince of Songkla, Chiang Mai and Mahidol) in partnership with the Université Pierre et Marie Curie, the Université René Descartes and the IRD. It should soon lead to a framework agreement and eventually be developed on a regional basis in cooperation with the Instituts Pasteur and associated institutes of Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos.

Latin America

The Amsud-Pasteur network created in December 2001 is developing and flourishing. Located in five countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay), it now brings together 49 partners (including 11 universities). The executive secretariat, based in Montevideo, is effectively coordinating the programme in connection with the national coordinating committees and that of the Institut Pasteur. The research projects begun at the end of 2002 involve genomics and proteomics of Aedes aegypti, the mosquito vector of dengue, and of Trypanosoma cruzi, the agent of Chagas disease, as well as a research programme on emerging viral diseases.
A project to create a new Institut Pasteur in Montevideo (Uruguay), with a regional focus, should take shape at the beginning of 2005. The organisation being considered will conduct very high-level research in the most modern fields of biological sciences, such as genomics, proteomics, and structural biology. It must also be capable of providing high-quality education and of creating continuous interaction with the region, welcoming internationally-known scientists for short periods. The generic theme of cellular degeneration will comprise one axis of important research in this future institute.

A renewal of the general agreement of cooperation between the Institut Pasteur and the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) in Brazil will be signed 29 September 2004. This purpose of this agreement is to revive the bonds of scientific cooperation that have existed for nearly a century with Fiocruz-since Mr. Oswaldo Cruz, at the beginning of the last century, and after having spent several years at the Institut Pasteur, returned to Brazil to devote himself to public health in founding this institution-in particular by opening up wider possibilities for cooperation and a better definition of the distribution of intellectual property rights and their valuation between our two institutions.

Middle East

In the context of its scientific collaborations with Israel, the Institut Pasteur in Paris is participating in many projects with the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot as its special partner, as well as with Tel Aviv University, Hadassah Medical School in Jerusalem, and Technio in Haifa. An institutional agreement brings the Institut Pasteur, the Weizmann Institute and the Pasteur-Weizmann Council together. Furthermore, a general agreement of cooperation was signed in July 2003 with Saint Joseph University of Beirut, in Lebanon.

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