Warm thanks to Dimitri Lavillette from Institut Pasteur Korea for an insightful seminar on responsiveness to SARS-CoV-2 pandemic and preparedness to future arbovirus outbreak!
Dimitri LAVILLETTE received his PhD in Molecular Virology in 2000 in Lyon (France) and achieved a 3 year post doc in the laboratory of David Kabat (“HIV-1, retroviruses and receptors”; Portland, Oregon, U.S.A.). He then secured a tenure staff scientist position at the National Center of Scientific Research in France (CNRS, 2003) and worked as a visiting Scientist in Mayo Clinic (Pr Vile, Rochester, Minnesota, USA) and Oxford University (Pr Zitzmann, Glycobiology institute, UK). He took a Professor position at the Pasteur Institute Shanghai – Chinese academy of Sciences (IPS-CAS, China) to lead the “Interspecies transmission of arboviruses and antivirals” unit (2014-2022). Recently, he was appointed as Chief Scientific Officer in Pasteur Institute Korea.
Having worked on the entry process and development of antivirals against major virus threats (Human immunodeficiency virus, Hepatitis C virus), he decided recently to develop works on emerging and re-emerging viruses transmitted by mosquitoes like Dengue, Zika and Chikungunya viruses. By studying both infections in mammals and insects in vitro and/or in vivo, his global project explores: i) the role of key viral and host determinants for human spillover and virus induced pathology ii) the characterization of neglected viruses in the context of a preparedness program to anticipate needs for next outbreaks. Using his expertise, this past years, he developed therapeutic strategies against SARS-CoV-2 virus using vaccine and neutralizing monoclonal antibodies or nanobodies. Dimitri LAVILLETTE recognition can be inferred from his 80 publications, his participation to more than 90 communications at international meetings, 10 patents, his tenure French national position at CNRS, his election at the “European society for virology”, his Adjunct Professor in Soochow University Pasteurien College, and his consulting activities for biotechnology companies. In China, Dimitri LAVILLETTE was the laureate of the 100 talent from CAS, 1000 Talent of Shanghai Municipality and the 2020 Magnolia silver Award from Shanghai Municipal Foreign Affairs Office.
