About
The PARADIGM project (project ANR-24-PEBI-0005) is part of the France 2030 plan and was selected by the French National Research Agency (ANR) via its Priority Research Programs and Equipment initiative on Biotherapies – PEPR Biothérapies.
The project is led by Paris Public Hospital Network (Assistance Publique des Hôpitaux de Paris, AP-HP), in partnership with the Biological Resource Center of Institut Pasteur (CRBIP) and the French Alternative Energies and Atomic Energy Commission (Commissariat à l’énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives, CEA).
Given the health emergency represented by antibiotic resistance, the aim of the PARADIGM project is to support personalized phage therapy development in France against, in principle, two priority multidrug-resistant pathogens: Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Bacteriophages, or phages, are viruses capable of infecting and killing bacteria, and can be key resources to produce effective treatments for antimicrobial resistant infections.
During the project, a national biobank will be established. This biobank, hosted at CRBIP, will be a key part of the Phagocenter, a new operational center directly linked to clinical requirements. It will also help speed up the testing that determines bacterial susceptibility to bacteriophages through innovative techniques combining artificial intelligence, advanced optical imaging and quality control.
PARADIGM will therefore result in a national infrastructure for phage therapy, helping to establish clinical standards and develop a French ecosystem in this strategic field.
Within the PARADIGM project, the Collection of Institut Pasteur (CIP) will be responsible for compiling and managing this national biobank for bacteriophages, and hosting bacterial strains. The project management office ( CRBIP-PMO) will be involved in CRBIP internal coordination. The Genome Informatics and Phylogenetics Expertise Group (GIPhy) will be responsible for bioinformatics quality control of the phages and their host strains.
