It all begins with a question asked at a patient's bedside. How do you tell apart two diseases that look alike, yet require radically different treatments?
It is this question, born from clinical practice, that led Marie Robert from the corridors of Hôpital Bichat to the laboratories of Institut Pasteur. A academic journey that the physician-scientist shared with Baptiste Arnaud, doctoral student and co-founder of the science media outlet Ordres de grandeur, as part of the video series « My PhD at the Institut Pasteur ».
→ Watch Marie Robert share her academic journey in the video series « My PhD at the Institut Pasteur ».
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A clinical question, a scientific answer
A resident in internal medicine at the AP-HP, Marie Robert chose early on not to choose between medicine and research. As early as her second year of studies, she joined a laboratory alongside her clinical placements, mentored by a rheumatologist pioneering translational research, and supported by the École de l'Inserm Liliane Bettencourt. It is within this translational framework, between hospital and laboratory, that the central question of her work emerged: if sarcoidosis and tuberculosis are so difficult to tell apart clinically, perhaps the immune cells of patients retain a distinct, measurable trace of each disease.
As she explains simply in the video: "Diseases leave hidden traces in cells, and these traces are not the same between tuberculosis and sarcoidosis." A clinical intuition transformed into a scientific hypothesis, then into a concrete result: biological signatures measurable in the blood make it possible to distinguish between the two conditions.
This is precisely what she demonstrates in her thesis, entitled « Immune dysregulation in sarcoidosis », defended on 1 December 2025 at the Institut Pasteur, within the Translational Immunology unit led by Dr Darragh Duffy, co-supervised by Pr Karim Sacré, internist at Hôpital Bichat (Centre de recherche sur l'inflammation).
Her work highlights biological signatures that reflect an immune memory specific to each condition, and opens the way to minimally invasive diagnostic tools as well as new therapeutic avenues. It draws in particular on the concept of maladaptive trained immunity, which she contributed to formalising in a publication in Trends in Immunology in May 2024. She summarises the ambition of her research as follows: "In the long term, the objective is to understand how environmental factors, such as infections, contribute to the development of diseases through modifications in the expression of our genes."
The thesis is available online
National recognition
This exceptional academic journey did not go unnoticed. On 8 October 2025, Marie Robert received the Prix Jeunes Talents France 2025 L'Oréal-UNESCO Pour les Femmes et la Science, awarded by the Fondation L'Oréal in partnership with the Académie des sciences and the Commission nationale française de l'UNESCO.
She is among the six Institut Pasteur researchers recognised this year, and among the 34 national laureates. A distinction that rewards not only the quality of her work, but also the commitment of a scientist clear-eyed about the obstacles women still face in research careers: "Regularly, I notice a difference in how men and women are regarded. Even when I am leading a project, if a less involved male colleague is by my side, interactions tend to focus on him." Conscious of these barriers, she remains determined to extend a helping hand to the young researchers who follow in this path.
A model for future generations.
Marie Robert's academic journey fully illustrates the ambition of the Institut Pasteur's MD-PhD programme: to train a new generation of physician-scientists capable of bridging the laboratory and the patient's bedside in order to accelerate medical advances and healthcare innovation. Through this programme and the series « My PhD at the Institut Pasteur », Institut Pasteur aims to shine a light on these interdisciplinary paths where clinical practice fuels research questions, and where scientific discoveries return to transform patient care.
Marie now benefits from a hospital collaboration contract signed between Institut Pasteur and AP-HP, enabling her to continue her research alongside her residency.
After the shooting, she confided: "I hope that some young people will be able to see themselves in this academic journey." Her message, addressed to future scientists and future physicians, is unambiguous: "If you love science and medicine, you do not have to choose. Both are possible."
The rigour of the laboratory and the humanity of care are not opposing paths. They can, and must, nourish one another.
