Laureates of the PEPR MIE 2024 call for projects

Each project is led by an interdisciplinary consortium of 4 to 20 teams with complementary expertise, led by a coordinator. The complete teams are detailed in Appendix 2.

SECTION 1 – Accelerating the acquisition of knowledge on emerging infectious diseases

ArboRetro – Coordinator: SALEH Carla (Institut Pasteur)

The Arboretro project (Breaking mosquito tolerance to arbovirus infections by manipulating retrotransposons) aims to exploit this mechanism to render mosquitoes incapable of tolerating viruses and therefore unable to transmit them. The project will pave the way for a sustainable and effective strategy to control mosquito-borne viruses and reducing their impact on global health.

Amount of support France 2030: 2 138 954M€

VERTICAL – Coordinator: MALNOU Cécile (Inserm Toulouse)

The VERTICAL project (Mechanistic characterization of novel host and viral factors for therapeutic interventions targeting transplacental transmission of Flaviviruses), willl stimulate new interventions to alleviate the health burden of Orthoflavivirus congenital infections during likely future outbreaks. The project will decipher the mechanistic underpinnings of both host and viral factors that influence orthoflaviviral transplacental infections through EVs (extracellular vesicles) and apply this knowledge to develop therapeutic interventions targeting vertical transmission of Orthoflaviviruses. The project will help to prepare for potential future Orthoflavivirus outbreaks and promote targeted therapeutic interventions to restrict vertical transmission.

Amount of support France 2030: 1 105 126M€

SURVI3 – Coordinator: DE PROST Nicolas (APHP DRCD)

The SURVI3 project (Severe acUte Respiratory Viral Infections in Intensive care units: Integrative translational approaches for future emerging and re-merging diseases), aims to address the biological basis of critical respiratory viral disease subclasses by identifying subsets of critically ill patients based on shared characteristics, including clinical and biological biomarkers. The SURVI3 project is expected to provide a comprehensive characterization of the mechanisms underlying subclasses of severe acute viral respiratory infections in the ICU using integrative and translational approaches. The methodology used will enable the identification of endotypes and/or clinical biomarker-based phenotypes in critically ill patients that are associated with differential outcomes, to enable the future design of precision critical care medicine.

Amount of support France 2030: 2 242 779M€

ViroBrain – Coordinator: GAUDIN Raphael (CNRS Languedoc)

The  ViroBrain  project (Impact of emerging viral infections on brain functions), aims at establishing a workflow for the evaluation of the impact of viral infections on brain functions, with an emphasis on emerging/re-emerging arboviruses and respiratory viruses. The project will  offer the possibility to monitor neurohealth and attempt to restore it through the development of original strategies to treat the neurological symptoms resulting from a viral infection (supportive care), rather than targeting the infection itself.  This proposal is built to assist public health authorities and the society to face future epidemic events by providing solid information to orientate political decisions in terms of vaccination, treatment and social countermeasure when needed.

Amount of support France 2030: 1 828 349M€

UNFIRE – Coordinator: DALOD Marc (Inserm Marseille)

The UNFIRE project (Accelerating our ability to understand and fight the immunopathology caused by respiratory infections with emerging viruses: from mouse models to macaques to patients), will contribute to a better understanding of the mechanisms controlling the development of severe pulmonary immunopathology during respiratory viral infections, opening up new avenues for manipulating inflammation for the benefit of the host. The project will confirm that late/prolonged production of IFN-I/III (interfeuron I/III) by pDC(plasmacytoid dendritic cells) is deleterious to the host during respiratory infections with emerging influenza viruses and coronaviruses; will determine the cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the deleterious effects of pDC and IFN-I; will identify target molecules/biological pathways and pharmacological drugs that can specifically inhibit IFN-I/III production by pDC or late IFN-I/III responses, in new preclinical mouse models of respiratory viral infections and in human cell cocultures, with the perspective to evaluating the safety and efficacy of the most promising treatments in mice and then in macaques.

Amount of support France 2030: 1 783 228M€

SECTION 2 – Organising and developing new treatments, vaccines and other means of prevention, diagnosis and surveillance for emerging infectious diseases

NeuroFlaviNA – Coordinator: PEYROTTES Suzanne (CNRS Languedoc)

The NeuroFlaviNA prooject (Targeting Neuroinvasive Infections associated to Flaviviruses with Nucleoside
Analogues) aims to provide a complete pipeline to this endeavor directed towards pathogenic neurotropic Orthoflaviviruses of significant clinical impact. The project will allow CNS (central nervous system) delivery of ribonucleoside-based antivirals targeting emerging or re-emerging neurotropic Orthoflaviviruses.

Amount of support France 2030: 1 356 178M€

InHEALation – Coordinator: EPARDAUD Mathieu (Université Tours)

The InHEALation project (Innovative prophylactic and therapeutic platform against airborne viruses: which inhalation route for optimal broad-spectrum and durable protection?), aims to establish a ground-breaking concept in the management of respiratory viral infections with novel therapy supported by a platform strategy for both vaccine and therapeutic antibody with an immunostimulant delivered locally to provide protection against airborne viruses. The key results expected are to determine, for the first time, the optimal mucosal route of administration to be used for clinical setting in humans and provide scientific and technical guidelines for the development of inhaled anti-viral vaccine and therapeutic antibody.

Amount of support France 2030: 2 179 669M€

ANTIVIRESPIR – Coordinator: MURIAUX Delphine (CNRS Languedoc)

The ANTIVIRESPIR project (Screening, identification and characterization of antivirals against respiratory viruses.), aims to ambitiously resize the national Virocrib infrastructure to complement its expertise, models and logistics in order to synthesize, screen, identify and characterize innovative antivirals against infectious respiratory viruses, at risk of emergence, and which can be immediately used during a new epidemic/pandemic linked to the adaptation to humans of a new viral strain.

Amount of support France 2030: 1 837 790M€

SECTION 3 – Enabling public policies and society to deal with epidemic crises

PReViX – Coordinator: SOFONEA Mircea T. (Inserm Montpellier)

The PReViX project (Pandemic preparedness to Respiratory Virus X: integrative modelling from first cases to early public health countermeasures), will develop an actionable research and sanitary framework for respiratory viruses that addresses the WHO incentives to broaden scientific research to yet undocumented pathogen species and strains, to prepare for the next pandemic. This project will employ quantitative approaches tailored for the challenges ahead regarding the diversity of data sources, as well as their real-time analysis and the support of emergency health decision-making. Il will make it possible to establish the microbiological, infectious, and epidemiological contours of future respiratory virus threats while proposing innovative methods to monitor, characterise, model in real time and intervene on the early spread of a (re-)emerging respiratory virus, based on the first available data, heterogeneous both in terms of nature and quality. It will help consolidate the French research community in quantitative approaches in infectious disease research. This will result in world-class scientific results as well as in the production, in close collaboration with the main public health actors in France, of decisive risk assessments for future respiratory virus epidemics.

Amount of support France 2030: 1 416 037M€

SECTION 1 – Accelerating the acquisition of knowledge on emerging infectious diseases

ArboRetro

Teams: SALEH Carla (Institut Pasteur, Paris) ; CRISTOFARI Gael (Institut Pasteur, Paris) ; LAMBRECHTS Louis (Institut Pasteur, Paris)

VERTICAL

Teams: MALNOU Cécile (Institut toulousains des maladies infectieuses et inflammatoires Inserm, Toulouse) ; CAVAILLE Jérôme (Center for Integrative Biology (CBI), Toulouse) ; POMPON Julien (Mivegec, Montpellier) ; SIMONIN Yannick (Pathogenesis & Control of Chronic & Emerging Infections (PCCEI), Montpellier) ; GALLARDO Franck (Néovirtech, Toulouse)

SURVI3

Teams: DE PROST Nicolas (APHP- HOPITAL HENRI-MONDOR 1, Créteil) ; RODRIGUEZ Christophe (APHP- HOPITAL HENRI-MONDOR 1, Créteil) ; GUILLON Antoine (Plateforme de metabolomique et analyses chimiques, Tours) ; ZHANG Qian (Institut Imagine,  Paris) ; MATHEVAS Matthieu (Institut Necker Enfants Malades, Paris) ; FOURATI Slim (APHP- HOPITAL HENRI-MONDOR 1, Créteil) ; RAMEIX-WELTI Marie-Anne (Institut Pasteur, Paris) ; NATELLA Pierre-Andre (APHP – Hôpital Henri Mondor, Créteil) ; GUEDJ Jeremie (Inserm, Paris)

ViroBrain

Teams: GAUDIN Raphael (CNRS, Montpellier); GONZALEZ-DUNIA Daniel (Infinity Toulouse Institute for Inflammatory or Infectious diseases, Toulouse); DIAS DE MELO Guilherme (Institut Pasteur, Paris) ; DELEIDI Michela (Imagine Institut, Paris) ; CARAPITO Christine (Institut Pluridisciplinaire Hubert Curien, Strasbourg) ; LAMBRESCQ Virginie (Pitié-Salpêtrière ICM, Paris)

UNFIRE

Teams: DALOD Marc (Inserm CIML Centre d’Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy, Marseille) ; RUA Rejane (Inserm CIML, Marseille) ; GAYA Mauro (Inserm CIML Centre d’Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy, Marseille) ; MIONNET Cyrille (Inserm CIML Centre d’Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy, Marseille) ; GATTI Evelina (Inserm CIML Centre d’Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy, Marseille) ; ZARUBICA Ana (Inserm Centre d’Immunophénomique (CIPHE), Marseille) ; FAVIER Benoit (Université Paris Sud Paris 11, Fontenay-aux-Roses) ; TROUILLET-ASSANT Sophie (Institut des agents infectieux, Lyon)

SECTION 2 – Organising and developing new treatments, vaccines and other means of prevention, diagnosis and surveillance for emerging infectious diseases

NeuroFlaviNA

Teams: PEYROTTES Suzanne (CNRS Univ Montpellier ENSCM, Montpellier) ; ROY Vincent (Institut de Chimie Organique et Analytique, Orléans) ; TESSIER Arnaud (CEISAM, Nantes) ; TOURET Franck (IRD INSERM AMU, Marseille) ; ALVAREZ Karine (CNRS Luminy, Marseille) ; SIMONIN Yannick (PCCEI PATHOGENESIS AND CONTROL OF CHRONIC AND EMERGING INFECTIONS, Montpellier) ; GOSSELET Fabien (LBHE Laboratoire de la Barrière Hémato-Encéphalique, Lens)

InHEALation

Teams: EPARDAUD Mathieu (ISP Infectiologie et Santé Publique, Nouzilly) ; SECHER Thomas (CEPR Centre d’Etude des Pathologies Respiratoires, Tours) ; PIQUEMAL Jean-Philip (LCT Laboratoire de Chimie Théorique, Paris) ; SIRARD Jean-Claude (CIIL Le Centre d’Infection et d’Immunité de Lille (CIIL), Lille) ; PAUL Stéphane (Université Jean Monnet, Saint-Etienne)

ANTIVIRESPIR

Teams: MURIAUX Delphine (CNRS, Montpellier) ; BELOUZARD Sandrine (CIIL, Lille); GALZI Jean-Luc (CNRS, Montpellier) ; LEBRETON Jacques (Chimie Et Interdisciplinarité : Synthèse, Analyse, Modélisation (CEISAM), Nantes) ; ROSA-CALATRAVA Manuel (Centre International de Recherche en Infectiologie (CIRI), Lyon) ; DE VOS John (IRMB, Montpellier) ; ZARUBICA Ana (Centre d’immunophénomique (CIPHE), Marseille)

SECTION 3 – Enabling public policies and society to deal with epidemic crises

PReViX

Teams: SOFONEA Mircea T. (PCCEI Pathogenesis and control of Chronic and Emerging Infections, Montpellier); CREPEY Pascal (Arènes, Rennes); PRAGUE Mélanie (BPH Bordeaux Population Health Research Center, Bordeaux); GUEDJ Jérémie (Université Paris Diderot – Paris 7); ALIZON Samuel (CIRB Centre interdisciplinaire de recherche en biologie, Paris) ; COLIZZA Vittoria (iPLESP Institut Pierre Louis d’Epidémiologie et de Santé Publique, Paris) ; BURREL Sonia (MFP Microbiologie Fondamentale et Pathogénicité, Bordeaux) ; CAUCHEMEZ Simon (Institut Pasteur, Paris) ; CHEVENET Frédéric (MIVEGEC Maladies infectieuses et vecteurs : écologie, génétique, évolution et contrôle, Montpellier)