What are the fundamental principles that govern immunity across life? How do immune systems function at the molecular level, evolve, and how can understanding them lead to new therapies? These questions drive Aude Bernheim’s research. With her lab, she studies immunity not only for its biomedical relevance—such as predicting immune targets or discovering new antiviral molecules—but also for its role in ecology evolution. Her work stems from the recent realization that bacteria possess a far more diverse repertoire of immune mechanisms than previously imagined, including eukaryotic homologs. This diversity and conservation challenge the notion that immunity is organized differently across life forms and instead suggests shared logic between bacterial and eukaryotic immunity.
With her team, she aims to systematically chart the diversity and function of these microbial immune systems, uncover their evolutionary links to eukaryotic immunity—and harness them to identify novel immune genes across fungi, plant, algae and humans. This cross-domain perspective, termed ancestral immunity, provides a framework to explore what is conserved, what innovates, and how immunity can be both ancient and adaptable.
Aude Bernheim is a group leader at Institut Pasteur, where she heads the Molecular Diversity of Microbes lab. She trained in molecular biology, bioinformatics and public policies in Paris, received her PhD from Institut Pasteur in Paris, France and completed postdoctoral work with Rotem Sorek at the Weizmann Institute in Israel. Her research combines a wide range of disciplines mixing bioinformatics and experimental approaches including (but not limited to) genomics, phylogenetics, bacterial genetics, phage biology … She has received the Jacques Monod Prize (2020), an ERC Starting Grant (2021), the Rosalind Franklin Award for Young Investigator (2021), the Collège de France Prize (2022), Young Investigator Program from EMBO (2024), the Irene Joliot-Curie Prize (2024), among others. Beyond her research, Aude Bernheim is actively engaged in promoting inclusivity in science through citizen science initiatives, public outreach, and science-policy dialogue. She notably co-authored a book on algorithmic gender bias and serves on the French President’s scientific advisory board.
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