Research Center Director's Editorial: Pr Daniel Louvard

Promoting Innovation and Excellence

Knowledge derived from human genome mapping has opened up new vistas in cancer research that are likely to lead to diagnostic and therapeutic applications.

Located in the heart of Paris on the Montagne Sainte-Geneviève in an exceptional scientific environment, the Institut Curie has many assets, one of the most salient of which is perhaps the fact that its research is based on the constant and productive cooperation of scientists and clinicians.

Over the recent years, the Institut Curie has kept abreast of, and even anticipated change and progress in Life Sciences. Research grants to foster emerging topics, grant for young investigators to develop their groups, acquisition of innovative technologies, international cooperation and partnerships with industry have stimulated and extended the scope of research projects, thereby creating conditions favourable to scientific innovation and dynamic development.

A leading European center for molecular cell biology, the Institut Curie has strengthened its activities in human genetics and immunology, encouraged exchanges between physicists, biologists and chemists, and finally created a developmental biology programme. A research development strategy for the post-genomic era, which aims to make use of this new knowledge for the benefit of patients.

The challenge may well be awe-inspiring, but the stakes in this battle are already clearly defined. Over the next decade, technologies such as DNA biochips generation will be used to establish individual tumors molecular signature, to improve diagnostic accuracy and, consequently, propose tailor-made treatments.
Institut Curie's research units, working with Inserm, CNRS or University, are therefore entering the 21^st century with considerable skills and the goal to carry out basic research aiming to develop new diagnostic tools or innovative therapies.

Crédit photo: Pedro Lombardi / Institut Curie