The Mérieux Foundation’s Emerging Pathogens Laboratory is at the heart of research on infectiology within the Charles Mérieux Campus in Lyon, Gerland (France). Indeed, the laboratory is a partner of the ECOFECT project that was given the label ‘Labex’ by the French Government.
This group of 11 laboratories of the Claude Bernard University in Lyon, VetAgroSup, INSERM, CNRS, INRA, the Pasteur Institute, INSA and ENS, aims to help better understand the interactions between pathogenic and non-pathogenic microbes, between pathogenic microbes and their human or animal hosts that are targets or simple carriers of the disease, and finally, their relationship with the environment.
Transdisciplinary projects – virologists, bacteriologists, immunologists, epidemiologists, ecologists and evolutionary- conducted within ECOFECT will get an integrated view of the epidemiology of infectious diseases, particularly zoonoses, which represent 60% of emerging diseases in the world, and to fight drug resistance, vaccination escape or the emergence of new diseases.
The launch of the ECOFECT project comes with a funding of over 10 million Euros over eight years.
The participation of Fondation Mérieux in ECOFECT will strengthen its development strategy and the support to research on infectious diseases which relies on the international network GABRIEL, coordinated by the Emerging Pathogens Laboratory.