ZEvent 2026 x Institut Pasteur: 10 answers on the research supported by your donations
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What is ZEvent?
ZEvent is a charity streaming marathon created in 2016 by Adrien Nougaret and Alexandre Dachary, known by their aliases ZeratoR and Dach. Each year, a large number of streamers come together on the Twitch platform for more than 50 hours to collect donations for selected charities. The event brings together a massive community of viewers and donors, making ZEvent one of the largest charitable gatherings in French-speaking streaming. The 2026 edition, the tenth and final one, aims to donate the funds raised to all the associations supported over the years, including the Institut Pasteur.
10 questions on the research supported by ZEvent 2026 donations
All donations collected in 2026 will be dedicated to the development of the Integrative Microbiome Program at Pasteur, or IM2P. This program brings together nearly 40 teams around a common goal: understanding how microbiomes, the billions of bacteria, viruses, fungi, and other microorganisms that inhabit our bodies and constantly interact with our cells, influence our health throughout life. Scientists will be better able to turn this knowledge into concrete tools for prevention and diagnosis, and eventually into validated clinical applications.
Understanding the microbiome is not just about cataloging the microorganisms present in the gut or on the skin. It also requires deciphering what they do, the molecules they produce, and their interactions with diet, the immune system, and the environment. This knowledge will help shed light on their possible links to a wide range of diseases, including colorectal cancers, allergies, chronic diseases (Crohn's disease, diabetes, etc.), depression, and certain neurodegenerative conditions. This requires many different approaches, and one of the Institut Pasteur's strengths is the diversity of its expertise. IM2P brings together microbiologists, immunologists, clinicians, biologists, bioinformaticians, and data science specialists. This interdisciplinary approach positions the Institut Pasteur as one of the leading players in the field.
Discover more about our scientific approach and our major research projects, including IM2P.
Donations will help support innovative interdisciplinary projects and develop new technologies for microbiome analysis. They will also help improve our understanding of how the microbiome contributes to the onset or progression of certain diseases. The goal is, in particular, to identify signals within its composition that could help detect disease risk earlier, refine a diagnosis, or predict whether a patient will respond to a treatment. These findings can then be verified among very large numbers of participants, through large-scale cohort studies, before being turned into reliable medical tools that healthcare professionals can use.
At the time, the donations collected supported several of the Institut Pasteur's research areas: emerging infectious diseases, antimicrobial resistance, and brain diseases. These funds also contributed to the acquisition of cutting-edge scientific equipment and to strengthening teams, technologies, and collaborations. These capabilities were then mobilized in response to Covid-19, which emerged just a few months later.
Starting in January 2020, the Institut Pasteur was on the front lines: it confirmed the first cases in France, isolated the virus, carried out the first complete sequencing of SARS-CoV-2 in Europe, and immediately shared this data with the international scientific community. Nearly 400 people were mobilized and more than a hundred projects were launched in 2020, covering diagnostics, epidemiology, modeling, immune response, treatments, and vaccine candidates. The responsiveness made possible by public generosity, to which ZEvent 2019 contributed, proved decisive in the face of an unpredictable crisis.
The Institut Pasteur's participation in ZEvent is not just about fundraising: it helps finance research that directly addresses major public health challenges. The mobilization of the streaming community gives teams the means to accelerate projects, explore new avenues, and strengthen their ability to respond to health threats.
Health threats are not disappearing, they are evolving and becoming more complex. Infectious diseases cause around 17 million deaths worldwide every year. Tuberculosis accounts for about 1.25 million deaths, malaria around 600,000, and infections caused by microscopic fungi approximately 3.8 million. Climate change and environmental shifts are accelerating the geographic spread of certain viruses or parasites (such as those transmitted by mosquitoes) and increasing the risk of zoonoses, diseases whose pathogens are transmitted between animals and humans. They are also fueling bacterial resistance to antibiotics. Research is essential to anticipate crises, strengthen surveillance, and inform public policy decisions.
Furthermore, the spread of conspiracy theories and misinformation, as well as budget cuts, are weakening biomedical research worldwide. Supporting it is therefore essential to protect our collective health.
The Institut Pasteur connects fundamental research, surveillance, prevention, and innovation. It is a member of the Pasteur Network, an alliance of 32 institutes spread across 25 countries on 5 continents, which allows it to be present close to the regions where risks emerge. The Institut Pasteur is also home to several National Reference Centers, expert laboratories responsible for identifying, analyzing, and reporting infectious agents. They take part, in particular, in the surveillance of pathogens responsible for meningitis, influenza, whooping cough, and botulism.
The Institut Pasteur was founded at the end of the 19th century, born from an international philanthropic movement, and this DNA remains today. The Institut Pasteur is a private foundation recognized as being of public interest, authorized to receive donations and bequests. Today, nearly 200,000 donors and patrons support it, and more than a third of the institute's resources come from this generosity, which is therefore a key component of its model and its ability to act over the long term. This model allows research to be pursued over time and enables collective investment in still-emerging topics, whose potential could prove decisive for tomorrow's breakthroughs.
To learn more about our status and economic model, you can consult our 2025 annual report and our 2025 financial report.
Donations allow scientists to explore new hypotheses, take scientific risks, and launch projects that don't always immediately fit within traditional funding mechanisms, particularly in fundamental research, rare or neglected diseases, or innovative projects. This is what our commitments reflect: sustainable, open, and ethical science serving the common good. ZEvent thus gives you the opportunity to become an active participant in tomorrow's discoveries.