The VRI includes 150 researchers working on more than 40 international projects.
Pr. Yves Lévy MD, PhD is Professor of clinical immunology. He was appointed CEO and Chairman of INSERM (French National Institute for Health and Medical research) from 2014-2018. He serves also as Chairman President of the Alliance for Health and Life Sciences (Aviesan) of the main stakeholders of life and health sciences in France.
In the last 25 years, Pr. Yves Lévy’s research activities have focused on field of immunology and infectious diseases, immune-based therapies and development of vaccines against HIV and also other infectious diseases. From 1996 to present he led several INSERM research teams in France and in USA.
Pr. Yves Lévy has created the Vaccine Research Institute (VRI). The VRI’s structure strengthens the links between basic, translational research, patients’ associations and the socioeconomic world to develop vaccines against (re)-emerging pathogens. The VRI includes a large network of teams In France, Europe and US gathering key international opinion leaders through a unique collaborative network and with a central strategic plan.
In his career Pr. Yves Lévy has moved up to ten candidate vaccines until clinical development through academic or public/ industrial partnership. Through this expertise, Pr. Y. Lévy has been instrumental in designing and implementing early proof-of-concept and Phase 3 clinical trials in France, Europe and internationally. Y. Lévy has published more than 400 original papers.
In his recent positions, Pr. Yves Lévy was appointed by the previous General Secretary of the United Nations as an expert member of the UN “Global Health Crises” Task Force in 2016 till 2018 and “Special Envoy” of the French Government for the coordination of the fight against Ebola in Central Africa in 2019. He is co founder and Chief Scientific and Medical Officer of the biotech EnnoDC (LinKinVax), a spin-off of the VRI created in 2020 to develop vaccine against infectious diseases and cancer.