The VRI includes 150 researchers working on more than 40 international projects.
Yves Lévy is a MD, PhD and Professor of clinical immunology with an expertise in vaccinology in infectious diseases. Yves Lévy is a specialist in immunology, a physician who is also a researcher and academic.
Since 1990, Pr Lévy is running both basic science and clinical researches as the PI of several clinical trials including, antivirals, immunomodulators, cytokines, therapeutic and prophylactic vaccines. He has been instrumental in designing and implementing early proof-of-concept and Phase 3 clinical trials in France, Europe or internationally and has an in depth global view on the strengths and challenges of the vaccine research.
Since 1985 he has worked successively in several Inserm research units. Since 1999, he has been Director of the team “Lymphoid Development under Normal Conditions and Under HIV Infection” in Inserm Unit 955. From 1996 to the present day Yves Lévy has directed the Department of Clinical Immunology and Infectious Diseases at Henri Mondor de Créteil Hospital.
In 2006, Yves Lévy became Scientific Director of the vaccine programme of the French National Agency for Research on AIDS and Viral Hepatitis (ANRS). In 2011, he created the “Vaccine Research Institute” labex (laboratory of excellence) under the Investissement d’Avenir (Investment for the Future) programme, whose program is based on recent advances in basic immunology, genomics and the knowledge of systems biology, and the development of innovative tools for evaluating the immune response.
Pr. Y. Lévy is the Executive Director of the VRI. From 2014-2018 he headed as Chairman and CEO of Inserm -French National Institute of Health and Medical Research. From 2010 to 2012, Yves Lévy was Vice-Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Paris-Est Créteil University (UPEC). He subsequently became a special advisor to the Minister for Higher Education and Research. He is also the coordinator or PI of several large research consortium, notably coordinator of the H2020 EHVA and PREVAC & PREVAC-UP EDCTP consortia, PI of the H2020 IP-cure-B and IMI EBOVAC2 consortia. He is also the coordinator of an IMI2 EC-Consortium (CARE) on COVID-19 antiviral and antibody discovery in collaboration with Janssen & Janssen and Takeda.