Program general concept
Can microbes influence the brain to maintain health or drive pathology? Will our understanding of the microbes and brain connection generate novel therapeutic approaches? The Major Federating Program Microbes & Brain (GPF M&B) has united 17 outstanding scientific and clinical teams inside and outside the Institut Pasteur Paris (Institut Pasteur International network, Inserm, and APHP) to shape an ambitious network of interdisciplinarity in the fields of Neurosciences, Microbiology and Immunology to answer these key questions. Several initiatives supported by internal and external funding have been undertaken and include a call for proposals, an international symposium, and a massive open online course.
The GPF M&B missions are as follow:
- Promote outstanding scientific and clinical collaborative research in the field of « Microbiota & Neurosciences » to strengthen the Institut Pasteur international renown and visibility.
- Foster scientific interdisciplinarity to encourage innovative ideas.
- Facilitate translational research to fast forward diagnosis and treatment of CNS diseases.
- Support and train tomorrow’s scientific and medical leaders in the field through reinforcing life science interdisciplinarity and high-level research programs.
- Interact at different levels with the political and administrative authorities, the scientific community, foundations, private and institutional partners to define research priorities and generate new collaborations.
The GPF Microbes & Brain strives to create in the near future new partnerships to foster innovation and discover novel therapies in the emerging field of the gut-brain axis.
Projects are confidential but belong to four major themes:
- The association of symbiotic microbiota with mental disorders.
- The impact of microbiota on the central nervous system.
- Microbial crossing of the blood brain barrier.
- Technologies to manipulate the nervous system.
