Accepting the Presidency

Yes, of course it was [a difficult decision]. It's a kind of decision [that] until the last minute you're not sure you're going to take. It's a huge jump. It's a huge jump into another unknown. Nobody is built for this kind of job. This is not something that you are prepared for and you're going to have to learn. It's coming back to what I said before, it's not about being prepared, it's actually being motivated to do and to learn and to accept and you're going to have to learn and to jump. I think it was another risk, which I enjoy very much.

Supporting Science that Benefits the Most Vulnerable

I think in many ways the position [I have] today is coming back somehow closer to this reality. I have gone far. I went to the US, I spent most of my career there, but I'm coming back closer to actually this original life, France and also Algeria. I'm also very much involved in things I believe profoundly, which is also the work that is done to the Pasteur Network, which is actually 33 [members]. Algeria is one of them and I believe in science that is universal, that is collaborative and actually benefits humanity in its totality, very much aligned with the value of what I was raised and I believe profoundly. I think this position is one step forward in this direction. The science that is open that is actually benefiting the people that are the most vulnerable in this world and I think in [the] Pasteur Institute we have the opportunity to actually contribute. I think that [my father] gave me the best gift, which is the meaning of life, which is why we are doing what we're doing.

Facing the Challenges of Tomorrow

This institute is quite remarkable. 140 years of an institution that is known internationally, that has done extraordinary discoveries over the years, but science is in a very specific moment. Science is way more expensive than it used to be. Science is way more complex, way more collaborative. Science is way more international. I think this institute, like all institutes, has to actually think deeply about what is the future of its model. How do we reorganize ourselves to face a challenge of tomorrow’s science that is way more collaborative in which we have privileged collaboration as a true value. How do we evaluate our scientists? How do we have a science that is more open? How we have a science that is more international? How do we protect the next generation?

Creating Opportunities for the Next Generation

We have so much anxiety in the next generation in science. How do we create more opportunities for the next generation to take leadership, to engage, to commit themselves to science? So, my goal for these few years here is to help this institute to project itself in the future and to revamp some of its infrastructures and model functioning to be more aligned with how science needs to function. This is not a challenge I'm having to face alone. All organizations have to live this extraordinary journey. The model as it was is not going to be sustainable, these tiny laboratories, etc. The reality is, we are now in a more collaborative, open science and we need to create infrastructures and reward systems and funding systems that support this kind of research.

Reinforcing Global Partnerships

I think Pasteur has a role to play internationally. It belongs to a network of 33 members in the world. For me, reinforcing this partnership with this international global network is fundamentally important, so that's part of the mission. Also, to be very much aligned with this fundamental strength of Pasteur in protecting this magic of discovery while at the same time remaining a leader in infectious disease research, so quite a few challenges. This is an extraordinary institute and my goal is to make it even better and to make it even more open to the world, more visible, and to give as much opportunity as possible to the scientists to express themselves and to take risk.

Yasmine Belkaid is a renowned scientist whose research focuses on the relationship between microbes and the immune system. She is the President as well as the head of the Metaorganism laboratory at the Institut Pasteur.

Belkaid earned her Master’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Science and Technology Houari Boumediene in Algiers, and a Master of Advanced Studies (DEA) from Paris-Sud University. In 1996, she earned her PhD in immunology from the Institut Pasteur, where she studied innate immune responses to leishmania infection. Belkaid then moved to the United States for a postdoctoral fellowship in intracellular parasite biology at NIAID’s Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases (NIH).

Belkaid has received numerous awards including the Robert Koch Prize, the Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences, the Sanofi-Institut Pasteur Prize, and the AAI Excellence in Mentoring Award. She also serves on the committees of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences, the Microbiome Technical Advisory Group at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the NIH Anti-Racism Steering Committee, the American Society of Microbiology, and the Genentech Scientific Resource Board.