Having developed most of my career in research on host-pathogen relations and having significant experience in scientific cooperation at the international level, I decided to accept the challenge to settle and work in Shanghai in the Institut Pasteur of Shanghai (IPS), a center belonging to the Chinese Academy of Sciences (CAS). The IPS arose from a France-China agreement signed in 2004 for bilateral cooperation in the fight against emergent infectious diseases. IPS is a member of a network of 33 Institut Pasteur centers (IPIN) all over the world and one of the few non-governmental organizations to be a permanent member of the assembly of the World Health Organization.

Fernando Arenzana (m) poses with his Chinese name. (Image from IPS, CAS)

Simultaneously with my nomination, Professor Tang Hong was appointed as Director General of the IPS. Together we have built and started our project for IPS. The project aims in fine to provide IPS with a unique and distinctive identity within CAS through the implementation of research excellence, competitive and visible internationally, focused on the study of infectious diseases in China and Southeast Asia.

To achieve these goals we have developed our program in the framework of coordinates set by CAS for the 13th plan and the four missions specific to IPIN: i) basic research, ii) innovation and industrial application, iii) teaching and training, and iv) public health service for infectious diseases.

As a priority, we placed research on human pathologies and its translational aspects at the heart of our projects. It is in this context that we have established a long-term collaboration with Guangzhou Mother-Child hospitals supported by the pooling of projects and human resources. In terms of the organization of the research, our first action was to promote transversal projects between the teams of our institute as well as, where possible, interdisciplinary research, particularly with other IPIN centers. The recruitment of new talents has been boosted and five new investigators, leaders of new research teams, have been or will be recruited to reinforce essential areas of investigation. In addition, we have improved our cell imaging and pathogen diagnostic /discovery platforms, two essential structures for our research on host-pathogen interactions and the pathogenesis of infectious diseases. Finally, thanks to the joint efforts of CAS, Fondation Mérieux and the Institut Pasteur in Paris, we will create in 2018 a new laboratory entirely dedicated to research on pathogens requiring handling with high security confinement (Biosafety Level 4, BSL4) . This research will be carried out partly in the new BSL4 structure created in Wuhan, resulting from the China /France collaboration on emerging infectious diseases. Finally, if the focus is on recruiting new talents, we are not neglecting the attraction of well-known personalities, indisputable international leaders, through the national SUPERTALENTS program.

As stated above, our research is conducted in an international setting and is fully integrated into IPIN's issues and strategies both as participant and coordinating center of the IPIN institutes in the Asia-Pacific region (coordinator, Prof. Tang Hong). Within this framework of action, we are developing in collaboration with the Pasteur Institutes of Cambodia and Laos projects aimed at developing new therapies against malaria and its eradication from Cambodia, evaluating the risks of possible epidemic emergence of yellow fever in Asia, assessing anti-vectorial strategies and investigating the inter-species spread of pathogens (spillover). In addition, taking into account China's interests and collaborative programs in other parts of the world and with a willingness to protect populations against the risks of the spread of infectious diseases inherent in massive trade and human mobility, we have established very tight collaborations with West Africa IPIN centers and in particular with the Pasteur Institute of Dakar (IPD).

Tang Hong (l), Director General of IPS, and Fernando Arenzana,Co-director for Scientific Research of IPS, CAS (Image from IPS, CAS)

Thus, in 2017, a project for a joint research center (BioSpark) was proposed, following agreements signed previously by the IPS and IPD, under the patronage of CAS. This new center will be dedicated to the surveillance and control of emerging or reemerging epidemics and to the validation of accumulated know-how. Actively supported by CAS, it is a priority project of the Government of the Republic of Senegal and is seeking the definitive support of China's highest political authority.

The unfailing link of fundamental research with their applications, illustrated by the example of “the fruit of the tree which bears it” proposed by its founder Louis Pasteur, is a hallmark of the Pasteurian Institutes. In this regard, IPS is making unremitting efforts thanks to its links with investors and pharma entrepreneurs. These actions testify to our adherence to the above-mentioned Pasteurian principle and generate economic benefits essential to our finances.

Complying with the Pasteurian task of teaching we have created the first international course in Asia entirely dedicated to host-pathogen interactions and the pathogenic mechanisms of infectious diseases. The second edition of this course has attracted the interest and support of private (Bettencourt Schueller Foundation, Institut Pasteur de Paris) and public partners (Ministry of Science and Technology of China, CAS, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of France). As in the previous 2017 edition, PhD students are eligible candidates. No geographical criteria for eligibility are imposed but Asian and IPIN applications are prioritized. The course will count on the participation of a panel of elite teachers from IPIN and prestigious international institutions of research from Europe, Asia, Africa and the United States.

Over two years many efforts have been made to embark IPS on a new age of scientific development and achievements that deserves to be intensified in the near future. The celebration in 2018 of the 40 years of official France-China scientific cooperation coincides with the 130th anniversary of the inauguration of the Institut Pasteur of Paris. Both events are an excellent opportunity for IPS to renew its commitment to the goals of the development of scientific partnership and friendship between the two countries.

Source: IPS, CAS