Immunology researcher was appointed Director General of the French Pasteur Institute, which specializes in the study of biology, viral diseases and vaccines on March 29, 2023.

She was the second woman to head the institute since it was founded by the French scientist Louis Pasteur in 1887, and the second Algerian figure – after Professor Hakim Djaballah – to hold this prestigious managerial and scientific position.

Her appointment as president of the Institut Pasteur follows a lengthy selection process that began in January 2021 by a research committee chaired by the director general of the European Molecular Biology Laboratory in Heidelberg, Germany.

Birth and upbringing

Yasmine Belkaid, born in Algiers in 1968, is the daughter of Algerian politician and multiportfolio minister Abou Bakr Belkaid, who was assassinated in 1995 during the country's black decade.

Study and training

Yasmine Belkaid is a graduate of Bab Zouar University of Science and Technology in Algiers, where she obtained a degree in science in 1990.

She then went to the University of Houari Boumediene, where she obtained a master's degree in biochemistry.

In 1995, she obtained a degree in advanced studies in the same discipline (biochemistry) from the University of Paris-Sud.

She began her career at the Institut Pasteur, where she discussed a PhD thesis on the immune response of the body infected with leishmania parasites.

She was awarded a postdoctoral fellowship at the laboratories of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infection, where she was able to deepen her research on the regulation of the immune system during leishmaniasis.

In 2002, she joined the Department of Molecular Immunology at Senate Children's Hospital as an assistant professor.

In 2005, she returned to the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infection (NIAID) as a scientist, a core member of the Parasitic Disease Laboratory, and Chief of Immunology.

In 2008, she became an assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania.

A brilliant scientific career

The research led and conducted by Professor Yasmine Belkaid concerns the relationship between microbes and the human immune system, and its interaction with infectious diseases, to include in subsequent scientific stations many fields.

These include parasitology, microbiology, medical entomology, virology, tissue immunology and human immunity.

Belkaid's research has been marked by its work on determining the relationship between the immune system and microbes, and she and her team were able to discover the underlying mechanisms that promote the persistence of microbes within tissues.

During her career, Yasmina Belkaid has taken particular interest in the importance of intestinal and skin microbiota in the immune response to pathogens and the control of vaccine responses.

She has also conducted research on other parasites such as Toxoplasma, and in 2016 was selected as a member of the American Academy of Microbiology.

In February 2017, she was elected a life member of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences for her outstanding and ongoing achievements in immunology, and was among 21 researchers and scientists who joined this important research institution, which has 2280,475 active members and <> non-American foreign scientists.

Yasmine Belkaid has written more than 200 scientific articles (Princeton University website)

In 2020, she served as a Distinguished Scientist at the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), a program that recognizes scientists, engineers, and innovators who have distinguished themselves and been recognized for their achievements in all disciplines.

She runs the Center for Human Immunology at the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH), the U.S. institution responsible for medical and biomedical research.

She also directs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) Microbiome Program and founded the Department of Host System (Recipient) and Microbiome Immunology.

Awards and Recognitions

In 2003, Yasmine Belkaid received a gold medal from the International Union of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology.

In December 2016, she was honoured as part of a scientific team made up of Dr Françoise Benoît Vikal, Dr Olivier Nerols and Professor Patrice Corvalin for their research on tropical diseases, immunology and drug resistance, representing 3 key areas of global health.

She and the team received the Sanofi Award from the Institut Pasteur, which is awarded every 5 years to people who excel in life sciences and biomedical research. In 2017, she won the Emil von Boring Prize from the University of Marburg, Germany.

In 2019, she received the Laurie Meyer Biomedical Award for her outstanding achievements in the field.

In 2021, Yasmine Belkaid won the German Robert Koch Foundation Prize, one of the most prestigious scientific awards, and was honored at a ceremony in Berlin for her pioneering research.

Her research has been on the importance of microscopic bacteria for the immune system, the role of microtissues and gut in the formation of microscopic bacteria, and their effects associated with infectious and inflammatory diseases.

Literature

Yasmine Belkaid has published more than 220 scientific articles on infection, immunity, germs and nutrition.