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Imagine Institute

March 21, 2024 — published by Pyramidale Communication

Key numbers for the imagine institute¹

2007: Creation of the Imagine Foundation, a Scientific Cooperation Foundation (FCS) dedicated to genetic diseases, founded by Professors Alain Fischer, Claude Griscelli, Arnold Munnich, and Stanislas Lyonnet.
2011: Designation as an IHU (Hospital-University Institute) under the French Investments for the Future Programme (Programme d’Investissements d’Avenir – PIA).
2018: Successful evaluation of the Institute’s laboratories by the High Council for the Evaluation of Research and Higher Education (HCERES).
2021: Imagine was awarded a third hospital-university health research grant through the Covifren project, aimed at improving understanding of the genetic and immunological bases of the different clinical forms of COVID-19.
2022: The Imagine Institute began coordinating the European EDIT-SCD project (Horizon Europe), which aims to develop innovative gene therapies for sickle cell disease.

For more information about the Imagine Institute, listen to the interview with its director, Prof. Lyonnet, in the special episode (March 21, 2024) of RARE à l’écoute, a podcast dedicated to rare diseases. Click here to listen.

Imagine Institute, history & missions^1,2

The Imagine Institute is a center of excellence for research, patient care, and education dedicated to genetic diseases. It brings together researchers, physicians, and patients with the ambition of accelerating scientific discoveries and combating severe and rare diseases. To achieve this goal, the foundation combines fundamental research, clinical research, and technology transfer.

Six founding members from the public and private sectors established the Institute in 2007: AP-HP (Assistance Publique – Hôpitaux de Paris), Inserm (Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale), La Science pour la Santé, Université Paris Cité, Fondation des Hôpitaux, la mairie de Paris, and AFM-Téléthon. Representatives of the founding members sit on the Board of Directors of the Imagine Foundation.

The Institute is located on the campus of Necker–Enfants Malades AP-HP Hospital, a world-renowned center for pediatric care. Today, it is Europe’s leading center for research, clinical care, and education dedicated to genetic diseases. To address major public health challenges, the Institute pursues four core missions: understanding disease pathophysiological mechanisms, developing future therapies and treatments, promoting research findings, and disseminating knowledge through education and training.

“The many pediatric research units that emerged on the Necker–Enfants Malades campus came together within Imagine. This shared energy was structured around genetics, the common denominator across all research units. In 2007, Claude Griscelli founded the Imagine Institute, which takes its name from the foundation.
Imagine stands for Institut maladies génétiques, but it also symbolizes progress, care, and innovation…”

Interview with Prof. S. Lyonnet, Director of the Imagine Institute

For more information about the Imagine Institute, click here and listen to the explanations of Prof. Lyonnet in the special episode of RARE à l’écoute, the podcast dedicated to rare diseases.

Organization, priority areas & successes^1-4

The power of research at Imagine: translational science. Imagine brings together 28 research teams (24 integrated laboratories and 4 associated laboratories), 18 technological platforms, and 31 rare disease reference centers, as well as 8 affiliated clinical units from Necker–Enfants Malades, Cochin, and Georges Pompidou hospitals, all in a single location centered around patients. This continuum of expertise enables the foundation to advance research more rapidly and effectively through a unique “loop” approach; clinical observation of patients and understanding the causes and mechanisms of diseases accelerate diagnosis and the discovery of new treatments.

The ten-year objectives of the Imagine Institute are focused on six major priority areas: immunology–infectiology, neurological and neurodevelopmental diseases, hematology, developmental anomalies, cardiology, nephrology and data science.

“Today, at Imagine, we have organized integrated research and care programs, where the strongest correlations can be observed between scientific research laboratories and rare disease reference centers or hospital units treating rare diseases.”

Interview with Prof. S. Lyonnet, pediatrician & geneticist

For more information about the Imagine Institute, listen to explanations from its director, Prof. Lyonnet, in the special episode of RARE à l’écoute, the podcast dedicated to rare diseases, by clicking here.

Several multidisciplinary research programs launched by the Institute have led to its major achievements, such as the Domaine d’Intérêt Majeur (DIM) label in Gene Therapy, a project coordinated by Imagine and Professor Marina Cavazzana, aimed at accelerating the development of gene therapy, or Chaire Dior de Médecine sur mesure, which combines the expertise of Dr. Antonio Rausell and Professor Marina Cavazzana to invent the personalized medicine and gene therapies of tomorrow. The Institute has also been selected to coordinate the EDIT-SCD project, supported by Horizon Europe, the European Union’s framework program for research and innovation for the 2021–2027 period. Led by Annarita Miccio, Laboratory Director at the Imagine Institute, this project aims to evaluate the efficacy and safety of genome-editing approaches for sickle cell disease.

The Institute has also achieved significant advances in genetic disease research, including the identification of a therapeutic molecule for Friedreich’s ataxia, the development of a bioinformatics method for generating cellular identity maps, and the co-discovery of the gene responsible for achondroplasia (the FGFR3 gene), a world first for treating this disease. Following several preclinical research programs conducted by Prof. Laurence Legeai-Mallet since 1994, the ambition to support individuals with dwarfism shape with several new molecules in clinical trials worldwide, some coming directly from their work on the deregulated mechanisms in achondroplasia.

The Institute is also continuing its fight against COVID-19 through its successful selection in the University Hospital Health Research (RHU) call for projects under the Investments for the Future Program (PIA), for the Covifren project led by Prof. Jean-Laurent Casanova and Dr. Laurent Abel. This success builds on major discoveries regarding the genetic and autoimmune origins of severe forms of COVID-19, which account for more than 20% of severe cases and deaths, as well as the identification of a molecular profile of pediatric myocarditis associated with COVID-19.

For more information about the Imagine Institute?

Click here to access the special episode on RARE à l’écoute podcast, featuring an interview with Prof. Stanislas Lyonnet, Director of the Imagine Institute.

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