Team

The VRI includes 150 researchers working on more than 40 international projects.

Preclinical models

Catherine Chapon Biophysician

She is Associate Professor in Biophysics at the Faculty of Medicine in the University of Paris-Sud 11 since 2009. She is in charge of the Imaging of Infection and Immunity core lab (L3i) in the IDMIT Infrastructure at the CEA at Fontenay-aux-Roses (http://www.idmitcenter.fr/). The national infrastructure for Infectious Disease Models and Innovative Therapies (IDMIT) is coordinated by CEA and is dedicated to preclinical evaluation of immune interventions, vaccines and preventive approaches of human infectious diseases.
The goal of her research is to develop in vivo imaging approaches for studying host-pathogen interactions, immune responses to infections and to treatments, and for monitoring treatments and their impact on pathogen transmission and dissemination in non-human primate models of human diseases. The L3i core lab can provide multimodal in vivo imaging (optical imaging with confocal laser endomicroscopy, two-photon microscopy; and also Positron Emission Tomography from 2017), for in vivo monitoring of infections, host responses and treatments from whole body to cell resolution in non-human primates in Biosafety Safety Level 2 and 3 laboratories.