Pascal Boireau received the G. J. Mendel Medal for Merit in the Biological Sciences
Dr. Pascal Boireau, Director of the Laboratory for Animal Health, Maisons-Alfort, ANSES, France, a distinguished collaborator of the Institute of Parasitology, received the Gregor Johann Mendel Medal for merit in the biological sciences. He received the award during a September meeting at the Institute of Parasitology of the BC CAS, during which a joint virtual French-Czech Institute of Parasitology was established.
Pascal Boireau is one of the world's leading figures in veterinary infectology. He is General Inspector on Veterinary Public Health in France, President of the French Society of Parasitology (SFP) and also Vice President of the World Society of Parasitology. He started as a virologist researching animal coronaviruses, without knowing at the time how crucial this issue would later become with the rise of the covirus pandemic. Subsequently, he worked on feline leukaemia virus and canine parvovirus, and later expanded his scope to zoonoses of parasitic origin, in particular the extremely insidious trichinellosis caused by a parasitic nematode, babesiosis or toxoplasmosis. From the very beginning of his scientific career, he has focused on veterinary medicine in close connection with animal and human health according to the ONE HEALTH concept, which integrates a unified approach to human, animal and environmental health.
Pascal Boireau was at the origin of the collaboration with the Institute of Parasitology on the basis of the cooperation of several research teams that had already started. In October 2019, a Memorandum of Understanding was signed in Paris (Maisons-Alfort), which provides appropriate support for applications for joint grant projects and provides a programmatic framework for the further development of mutually beneficial collaboration. During the September meeting with Dr. Pascal Boireau, our bilateral cooperation was strengthened by the establishment of a virtual French-Czech Institute of Parasitology. The cooperation so far has resulted in joint publications and an international patent.
