Centre
of Immunology
and Microbial
Infections
The Centre for Immunology and Microbial Infections (Cimi) is a mixed research unit created in 2014. It is affiliated to Sorbonne University, Inserm and CNRS. The Cimi is located on the campus of Sorbonne University’s Faculty of Medicine at the Pitié-Salpêtrière site in Paris.
The location encourages a strong dynamic and interactions between the research teams and the hospital services. Approximately 150 people work at the Cimi, including researchers, teachers, technical personnel and research support staff.
The research conducted at the Cimi explores how the immune system functions and host-pathogen interactions, but also aims to develop immune-based therapeutic strategies and new ways to fight infectious diseases.
Topics: immunology, inflammation, immuno-oncology, microbiology, host-pathogen interactions, antibiotic resistance, vaccinology.
Our research topics
Immunology
Inflammation
Our teams are interested in innate and adaptive immunity, in context of physiological or pathological states.
Through the prism of these two immune conditions, we study responses to infections, immune aging, vaccination and different pathologies such as immune deficiencies, autoimmune diseases, allergic reactions, cancer or metabolic diseases associated with immunity.
Host-pathogen
interactions
Interested in human pathogens, scientists at the Cimi have focused their research on the microbes responsible for major pandemics (AIDS, malaria, tuberculosis, Covid-19).
Our research aims to identify the virulence factors of these pathogens and their reservoirs, but also decipher their mechanisms of action and resistance to anti-infectious treatments. Pathogens aside, a major interest of the Cimi is also to explore the relationship between the microbiota and the immune system.
Vaccines, biotherapies,
anti-infectives
The Cimi develops new preventive or therapeutic strategies and approaches to fight these diseases. From basic research to clinical development, innovative vaccines, biotherapies, cell therapies, and new anti-infective compounds have been elaborated at the Centre.
Know moreA word from the director of Cimi-Paris
Since its creation in January 2014, the Cimi has been developing research programmes dedicated to the development of knowledge in immunology and microbiology with the aim of preventing and curing infections, but also slowing and mitigating inflammatory processes.
Researchers are concerned with everything from molecules essential for immune function to whole organisms (microbes, mice and humans), from physiology to pathology, from disease models to the design of new therapeutic approaches.
Due to, among other things, its location within the Pitié-Salpêtrière University Hospital, the Cimi maintains a unique environment that allows clinicians and scientists to collaborate and think together on human infectious diseases.
Biology and medicine are integrated to foster strong and productive interactions between basic and clinical research, facilitating the emergence of new concepts for therapeutic applications.
The 150 or so members of the Cimi pool their expertise in virology, bacteriology, parasitology, immunology and clinical research, with the aim of developing innovative, cutting-edge research in these fields.
Quality, originality and innovation of our research are thus guaranteed.
In this context, the Cimi has been able to react to major epidemic crises, particularly in the face of Zika, HIV, Ebola, Malaria and recently COVID-19.
The centre’s teams have been responsive and strong in federative proposals.
They have thus collaborated to study different facets of the pandemic virus and actively participate in the discoveries that allow us to better understand and combat the SARS-CoV-2.
The Cimi is therefore at the centre of the fight against infectious diseases, while maintaining strong values for the dissemination of knowledge and its applications, to the hospital environment and research, as well as for the training of future researchers, hospital researchers and practitioners.
The Cimi has 12 research teams
In light of the strong bond with the hospital, half of the Cimi’s research teams are led by hospital practitioners, and the other half by Inserm or CNRS researchers.
Aubry Alexandra
Emergence
and Diffusion
of Multiple Drug Resistance
against antibiotics
Boissonnas Alexandre
Chemokines,
Phagocytes
and Inflammation
Combadière Behazine
Immunity
and Vaccination
Dieu-Nosjean Marie-Caroline
Immune
microenvironment and
Immunotherapy
Gorochov Guy
Study and manipulation of
tolerance in human immunopathology
Larsen Martin
Immunity
& Microbiota
Ecology
Salomon Benoit
Immunoregulation and
Therapy of Autoimmune
Autoimmune Diseases and Cancer
Sauce Delphine
Immunopathogenesis
of viral infections
and immune aging
Silvie Olivier
Biology and
immunology
of malaria
Vieillard Vincent
Immunity, infection
and cancer of
NK & T cells
Weil Robert
Signalling and
Pathogenesis
Weiner Allon
Dynamics,
structure and
molecular biology
of fungal invasion
The Cimi's technological plateforms
Insectarium
The Cimi has an insectarium dedicated to breeding a colony of Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes, vectors of the Plasmodium parasite, the agent of malaria.
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Imaging platform
The Cimi has a fluorescence microscopy platform for live-cell imaging, mainly for the study of host-pathogen interactions, or fixed material.
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Quantérix technologiical platform
The Cimi’s Quantérix platform includes three analysers, the SR-X and SP-X systems for simultaneous multiple analyses (up to 10 analytes per well), and an HD-1 system for fully automated assays.
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The cytometry park
The Cimi’s cytometry park is equipped with a wide variety of flow cytometers (analysis cytometers and cell sorting cytometers) including state of the art technologies to perform analyses based on fast and/or multidimensional acquisition systems.
Know moreCiminars cimi-paris seminars
Residency and trafficking of ILC2 under stable and Th2-induced inflammatory conditions
TBC
Recent news
The effectiveness of a vaccine against #HIV
Dr Behazine Combadière, a lead investigator at the Centre for Immunology and Infectious Diseases @INSERM is working on predicting the effectiveness of a vaccine against #HIV which is concurrently advancing the #CovidVaccine development research.
Know moreVaccine responses against SARS-CoV-2 variants examined in people with lupus
The majority of people with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) who respond to messenger (m)RNA COVID-19 vaccines also generate an antibody response against emerging SARS-CoV-2 variants, albeit with reduced neutralizing activity against variants bearing the E484K mutation, researchers report.
Know moreA personalized precision medicine approach is needed to treat Covid-19 as more than one type of “Cytokine storm” is induced by SARS-CoV-2
The severe form of Covid-19 is known to be associated with the excessive elevation of many cytokines, a condition termed “cytokine storm”. Therapy with biological agents intended to block these cytokines, for example anti-interleukin-6 or anti-interleukin-1 antibodies, was already tried, albeit with a limited success.
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