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of patents, the system analyzed the best, most cited later HIV-2. Institut Pasteur was also in the cen-
inventors and the most cited patents, and we calcu- ter of treating the first HIV patients at that time in
lated the final score from an aggregate of the two. France and trying to develop as quickly as possible
We ranked our inventors objectively with no some immunological tests to screen the patients and
politics involved to see what we would get. What basically try to contain the epidemic. We have also
is interesting is that, in fact, among the 20 or 25 discovered many different great inventions since,
highest-scoring inventors, we found that they were such as discovering the most virulent and oncogenic
our most famous inventors. There was a very nice strains of HPV, the human papilloma virus that is
consistency between our objective ranking and data responsible for many cases of ovarian cancers in
analysis and our own opinions on the matter. From women. All these inventions provided a huge con-
this process, and with advice from communications tribution to medicine and society.
and from then-President Christian Bréchot, we This is why I think the NAI is beneficial—because
selected the inventors to elect for the first launch of it keeps reminding all of us that universities and non-
the NAI Chapter at Institut Pasteur. profit research institutions are fundamental and
need to be encouraged, and that their contribution
How does an NAI Chapter support the innovation to progress in many areas of science, education, and
community at Institut Pasteur? medicine is huge. Everything that is a new product or
Christian Bréchot, the former president of Institut a new technology has, in one way or another, come
Pasteur, and I, with the help of both of my colleagues out of those institutions and universities.
in the communications department, thought a lot
about what a local chapter of the NAI would mean What does invention recognition mean to faculty
here at Pasteur and worked to make it consistent researchers?
with our baseline and underlying strategy so that it The celebration of our local chapter, with Paul San-
fit Institute Pasteur culture, which was very import- berg and Christian Bréchot, was a success. Everyone
ant. Innovation is part of the culture of the Institut. seemed very happy to be there and very thankful to
If something arises from research and science in Institut Pasteur and the NAI to be finally recognized
microbiology, for example, then it is moved forward in a ceremony with awards for their contributions to
to the application of science to provide new products, Institut Pasteur and to society. Of course, their con-
new vaccines, and new diagnostics. tributions for their scientific achievements through
Invention and innovation is part of our genes and their publications have been well established and
our history. Indeed, 130 years ago, Louis Pasteur filed recognized, but what was missing was a recognition
some of the first patents in the field of microbiology. of them as inventors.
In fact, he was handwriting his patent applications at Some of the inductees are indeed very famous sci-
the time. He wrote patents protecting a process for entists who are well known for their ability to produce
beer fermentation using yeast strains and for a process some very nice publications in the best journals, but
for treating wine so that it can age without deterio- not all of Institut Pasteur’s scientists are inventors,
rating, basically pasteurizing the wine. So, from the and our inventors had—until then—lacked some
beginning, Louis Pasteur was very much involved recognition from Institut Pasteur for their inventive
in developing and protecting these inventions. He contributions. We saw during the celebration the
was, in fact, also doing some technology transfer at emotion of the scientists who were finally also being
the time. It was very early of course, and we can’t recognized for their contributions as inventors, and
really call this technology transfer, but his discoveries it was a great moment to share.
were used by companies such as Carlsberg, now a On this day, we were all reminded that scientists
worldwide beer company. can be involved in the academic track as well as the
More recently, of course, in the past several years, discovery and development of inventions. In fact,
we have seen more great inventions, such as the dis- both are intertwined, and both can cross-pollinate
covery of the agent causing HIV-1 and then two years each other.