Alumni and guests are invited to join the Cambridge Society of Paris, for a talk by Pascale Cossart, The invisible world of life (bacteria, fungi, archaea…and viruses) Or A trip in the country of microbes: a lot of friends, a few enemies.

While the whole planet has been the prey of a terrible virus, the conference presented by Pascale Cossart will show us how all living organisms on earth including humans live with an incredibly high number of invisible microorganisms which are absolutely necessary for their well-being, their health, and the equilibrium of all forms of life on the planet.

Microbiology has made fantastic progress in the last twenty years or so and one understands now why and how microorganisms live in complex assemblies – called microbiomes- in which they communicate together. These microbes are able to participate in real symbiosis with the organisms they colonize. The best-studied microbiome is the gut microbiome. Pascale Cossart will tell us that there are zillions of other microbiomes! There are microbiomes everywhere, for example on plant roots, in corals, in all animals even the smallest ones.

Unfortunately, some microorganisms are responsible for diseases and although one believed some thirty years ago that, thanks to antibiotics and vaccines, the world would see the end of infectious diseases, this did not happen: new diseases regularly appear or re-emerge…. The conference given by Pascale Cossart invites all of you who want to discover the fascinating world of bacteria, yeasts and fungi, microalgae, and …viruses.

This conference is intended for a very general public.

Professor Pascale Cossart, of the Institut Pasteur, is one of France’s leading biologists. The recipient of many national and international awards, she is Secrétaire perpétuel pour la division Sciences chimiques, biologiques et médicales, et leurs applications de l’ Académie des sciences and a Foreign Member of the Royal Society of London.

Participants will be welcomed with a coffee, available from 6pm, and the lecture will begin at 7pm.