PRESENT AND RECENT ACTIVITIES




In September 2005, I reached the age of mandatory retirement at the Institut Pasteur and therefore terminated my research projects and closed my laboratory.

Nevertheless the institute generously provided me with an office on its campus, from where I can pursue various scientific activities, several of which are directly related to the Institut Pasteur. These are related to my positions as:

- Honorary Chairman of the Board of the Pasteur-Weizmann Council for Cancer Research, a non-profit fund raising association whose aim is to promote, develop and support research programs conducted jointly by scientists from the Institut Pasteur in Paris (France) and the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot (Israel).

- Chairman of the Scientific Council of the French Committee of the Weizmann Institute of Science's Friends.

- Member of the International Board of the Weizmann Institute of Science.

- Member of the Executive Committee of the "Pierre Ledoux - International Youth Foundation" (Fondation Pierre Ledoux - Jeunesse Internationale),  which aims at contributing to the training of youngsters through a better knowledge of international realities and cultures. In particular,  it provides fellowships to students in biology, medicine, pharmacy or veterinary sciences who wish to complete their training in one of the institutes of the RIIP (International Network of Pasteur Institutes).

- Member of the jury of the Jacques Monod Prize which distributes annual Prizes to scientists having undertaken research on the molecular aspects of cellular regulations in a french laboratory.

- Member of the Advisory Board of the Institute for Bioinformatics and Biotechnology "2Bio", an institution aiming at the promotion and development of bioinformatics and biotechnology in Brazil. Based in Natal, it is associated with the Ludwig Institute for Cancer Research and Hemocentro RP (the Haemotherapy Regional Center in San Paolo).

- Member (2016 - ...) of the Scientific Advisory Board of ANIMA BIOTECH (Tel Aviv - Israël), a biotechnology start-up  which has developed a method for quantitative imaging of active protein synthesis and applies it to the discovery of drugs controling protein translation.

- Co-chairman (2001-2012) of the Organizing Committee and member of the jury of the Pasteur-Weizmann/Servier International Prize, a prestigious award offered every three years to a top-level researcher, scientist or physician, internationaly renowned for his major contribution to a biomedical discovery leading to a therapeutic application.

- Co-founder and spokesman of the LIST (Lascaux International Scientific Thinktank), an international group of scientists concerned by the microbial and climatic unbalance that threatens the 18.000 year old paintings of the Lascaux cave in southern France and volonteer to help in the preservation of this unique cultural heritage.