Louis Pasteur chemist
The Pasteur Institute, an international reference in infectious diseases, celebrates today the 200th anniversary of the birth of its founder, the scientist Louis Pasteur (1822-1895), with the lessons learned from his failure during the pandemic, when he failed to achieve an effective vaccine against Covid-19.
The renowned medical research center, which has 10 Nobel laureates, decided to take advantage of Pasteur’s anniversary both to highlight the legacy of this key figure in immunization, and to take stock of the Institute’s work during the Covid crisis.
Jean-Claude Manuguerra, one of the eminences in the identification of new pathogens, expressed that the sadness for not having achieved a sufficiently effective Covid vaccine between 2020 and 2021 is still present.
“As a Pasteur worker, I am completely devastated for not having achieved a vaccine made by our Institute, but we did our part in other areas, such as the diagnosis and evolution of viral variants,” temporized the director of the Biological Intervention Cell of urgency of the Institute.
Although the name Pasteur and vaccines are closely associated – inoculation against rabies was discovered in 1885 by Louis Pasteur – Manuguerra asserted that the Institute “extracts lessons about the pandemic every day.”
He regretted that in France the chain that leads to medical advances – from theory, through clinical research and even industry – is slow, unlike the US or Germany.
“We lack structures that lead us to depend on third parties. When we have a vaccine that does not work, we cannot change our strategy, because our deadlines are longer, ”she explained.
According to Manuguerra, the market trend has also “killed innovation” due to the merger and purchase operations carried out by large pharmaceutical laboratories, leaving small innovative companies out of the game.
However, the specialist in infectious diseases insists on seeing the glass half full, partly thanks to the contribution of the European Union (EU) which has allowed, in his opinion, “financing and a way to maintain the place” of the European science in the world.
“Europe has not lost the science race, we must keep running,” he stated.
WORLD LEGACY
When commemorating the 200th anniversary of Louis Pasteur -born in El Jura on December 27, 1822-, Manuguerra highlighted how this pioneer of vaccination and techniques such as pasteurization (thermal process to reduce pathogens in foods such as milk) still inspires generations of researchers around the world.
“We are very proud to belong to the Institute. There are streets, squares, boulevards with the name Pasteur all over the world. Thanks to him, progress was made in human health, which meant saving lives, ”he recounted.
“The demand and excellence” transmitted by Louis Pasteur are still a tangible legacy, as is the multidisciplinary nature of his research, from chemistry to biology. Contrary to popular belief, the scientist was not a doctor and he never inoculated any patient with the vaccines he devised, despite the fact that he was portrayed with an injection in hand. Finally, Manuguerra highlighted the importance of the fact that the Institute has remained a non-profit and “independent” foundation, 135 years after its founding.
At Pasteur, created in 1887 in the south of Paris a short distance from the Montparnasse station, today some 2,800 people work, half of them researchers from 77 different countries. There are branches of the Institute in 25 countries, including Uruguay and Brazil.
HIS REMAINS REST THERE
Married to Marie Pasteur and father of five children -of which only two reached adulthood-, the inventor of pasteurization was devoted to his work, to such an extent that he ended up residing at the Institute he founded.
There he spent the last seven years of his life. Since 1935, the premises became the Pasteur museum, where there are pieces from his personal and professional collection. His mortal remains lie a few meters below, in a neo-Byzantine-inspired crypt, where he is buried along with his wife Marie de él and the famous doctor Émile Roux, a close associate of Pasteur.
