Definition of Pasteur Institute

Pasteur Institute: A non-profit private foundation which contributes to the prevention and treatment of disease, primarily infectious diseases, through research, education, and public health activities.

The Pasteur Institute was inaugurated on November 14th, 1888. It was created thanks to the success of an international fund to allow Louis Pasteur to expand vaccination against rabies, to develop the study of infectious diseases and to spread his knowledge. As soon as his institute was created, Pasteur brought together scientists with various specialties. The first five departments were directed by Emile Duclaux (general microbe research), Charles Chamberland (microbe research applied to hygiene), Elie Metchnikoff (morphological microbe research), Joseph Grancher (rabies) and Emile Roux (technical microbe research). One year after the inauguration of the Pasteur Institute, Roux will set up the first course of microbiology ever taught in the world. Very quickly, Pastorians spread worldwide, to apply and transmit the "Pastorian method" and to study the particular characteristics of exotic diseases. So, together with the development of the Pasteur Institute, an international network of Pasteur Institutes and of associated institutes will form, that now includes some 20 establishments spread over the five continents.