The (Inserm, ) is the French National Institute of Health and Medical Research.

History and organisation

Inserm was created in 1964 as a successor to the French National Institute of Health. Inserm is the only public research institution solely focused on

human health Health has a variety of definitions, which have been used for different purposes over time. In general, it refers to physical and emotional well-being, especially that associated with normal functioning of the human body, absent of disease, pain ...

and

medical research Medical research (or biomedical research), also known as health research, refers to the process of using scientific methods with the aim to produce knowledge about human diseases, the prevention and treatment of illness, and the promotion of ...

in France. It is a public institution with a scientific and technical vocation under the dual auspices of the Ministry of Health and the Ministry of Research. Similarly to the US

National Institutes of Health The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...

, Inserm conducts fundamental and translational research projects through 339 research units, run by around 13,000 scientists, including 5,100 permanent research staff members and 5,100 staff members co-affiliated with university hospitals and medicine faculties. Inserm's laboratories and research units are located all over France, mainly in the largest cities. Eighty percent of Inserm research units are embedded in research hospitals of French universities. In 1997, Inserm founded

Orphanet Orphanet is an organisation and knowledge base dedicated to rare diseases as well as corresponding diagnosis, orphan drugs, clinical trials and expert networks. Orphanet was founded in France in 1997 by Inserm, the French National Institute of H ...

, a

rare disease A rare disease is any disease that affects a small percentage of the population. In some parts of the world, the term orphan disease describes a rare disease whose rarity results in little or no funding or research for treatments, without financi ...

database. Inserm's CEO is chosen by decree upon a proposal of the Ministers of Health and Research, advised by a review committee.France may be back, but the old ways persist for INSERM.
The Lancet, Volume 391, Issue 10138, p 2390, retrieved 16 June 2018. The CEO since January 2019 is Gilles Bloch, a doctor and researcher specializing in medical imaging.

Ranking

According to the 2019 Scimago Institutions Ranking, Inserm is the second-best research institution in the health sector (behind the

NIH The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...

) and twenty-second best across all sectors.

Awards

Nobel prizes The Nobel Prizes ( ; ; ) are awards administered by the Nobel Foundation and granted in accordance with the principle of "for the greatest benefit to humankind". The prizes were first awarded in 1901, marking the fifth anniversary of Alfred ...

Two Inserm research scientists have been awarded by the

Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine () is awarded yearly by the Nobel Assembly at the Karolinska Institute for outstanding discoveries in physiology or medicine. The Nobel Prize is not a single prize, but five separate prizes that, acco ...

. In 1980, the French immunologist

Jean Dausset Jean-Baptiste-Gabriel-Joachim Dausset (19 October 1916 – 6 June 2009) was a French immunologist born in Toulouse, France. Dausset received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1980 along with Baruj Benacerraf and George Davis Snell f ...

received the Nobel prize (along with

Baruj Benacerraf Baruj Benacerraf (; October 29, 1920 – August 2, 2011) was a Venezuelan-American immunologist, who shared the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the "discovery of the major histocompatibility complex genes which encode cell s ...

and

George Davis Snell George Davis Snell NAS (December 19, 1903 – June 6, 1996) was an American mouse geneticist and basic transplant immunologist. Work George Snell shared the 1980 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine with Baruj Benacerraf and Jean Dausse ...

), for his work on the discovery and characterisation of the

gene In biology, the word gene has two meanings. The Mendelian gene is a basic unit of heredity. The molecular gene is a sequence of nucleotides in DNA that is transcribed to produce a functional RNA. There are two types of molecular genes: protei ...

s making the

major histocompatibility complex The major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is a large Locus (genetics), locus on vertebrate DNA containing a set of closely linked polymorphic genes that code for Cell (biology), cell surface proteins essential for the adaptive immune system. The ...

. In 2008, the French virologist

Françoise Barré-Sinoussi (; born 30 July 1947) is a French virologist and Director of the Regulation of Retroviral Infections Division () and Professor at the in Paris. Born in Paris, Barré-Sinoussi performed some of the fundamental work in the identification of the h ...

was awarded, together with her former mentor

Luc Montagnier Luc Montagnier ( , ; 18 August 1932 – 8 February 2022) was a French virologist and joint recipient, with and , of the 2008 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of the human immunodeficiency virus ( HIV). He worked as a rese ...

, for the identification of the

human immunodeficiency virus The human immunodeficiency viruses (HIV) are two species of ''Lentivirus'' (a subgroup of retrovirus) that infect humans. Over time, they cause AIDS, acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS), a condition in which progressive failure of th ...

Grand prix de l'Inserm

Each year, Inserm awards three researchers in three major distinct categories. The ''Grand prix de l'Inserm'' recognizes major advancements in biology for an active researcher of the institution, the ''Grand prix d'honneur'' recognizes a French public institution's researcher whose contributions have had a major impact in science, and the ''Prix étranger'' (Foreign Prize) awards a foreign researcher for their particular contributions to biomedical research. In addition the Inserm has internal awards for engineers and young researchers.

Awardees

Notes and references

External links

* (English) {{Authority control Medical and health organizations based in France Scientific organizations based in France Public health in France