Ms Anne Capdepon

Representative(s) of the unit's supervising institutions and bodies: 2  Assessment of the unit

The "Institut de Physique Théorique" has a long history of excellence, at the forefront of innovative developments in theoretical physics. The committee acknowledges the very high scientific level that the laboratory has maintained through the last period, which makes it one of the top laboratories in Europe for theoretical physics. It especially commends the comprehensive approach of theory, which is a long-term tradition and which has been successfully maintained, with many members of the lab contributing significantly to several domains. The strong attractivity of the laboratory should allow it to face successfully some of the challenges of the coming period, especially regarding the hiring of permanent researchers.

Strengths and opportunities related to the context

The main strength of the IPhT is the scientific quality of its members, and of the work that they publish. This makes the laboratory very attractive for young researchers, visitors, but also for funding, as is exemplified by the unusually high number of ERC fundings.

The committee would like to praise the renewal of generations achieved, not an easy task for a laboratory with such a tradition of scientific leadership: there is now an harmonious conjunction of senior scientists, leaders in their fields, and of promising young stars who have the potential to define the fields of the future.

A significant achievement of the present period is the successful development of new themes that have now reached maturity (string theory, solid state physics). This broadens the spectrum of the Institute, and thus diversifies the comprehensive approach of theory, which is a trademark of this laboratory.

Weaknesses and threats related to the context

The committee considers as a significant threat the absence of hiring from CEA in the coming period. Given the fact that other sources of hiring will undoubtedly be scarce, this endangers the potential of the laboratory for a necessary renewal of staff and expertise. This might be partially mitigated by the large number of non-permanent scientists.

A potential threat is the low involvement in the regional research structure (Paris Saclay) at a time of a major reshaping, and in a configuration where this represents the most plausible source of extra resources.

Recommendations

The Institute should improve significantly the involvement in the shaping up of the Paris Saclay research pole, which should see positively an active role of one of the leading laboratories in theoretical physics. IPhT might increase its influence by teaming up with other theory laboratories in the area.

 Detailed assessments Assessment of scientific quality and outputs

The committee judges the overall quality of the scientific production of IPhT of the best international level, with a high impact in the scientific community. It notes that new fields have been successfully developed, such as string theory and solid-state physics, and have reached maturity. The comprehensive approach of theory, which is a trademark of this laboratory, has allowed theoretical and methodogical breakthroughs.

Some of the following contributions highlight these different aspects (for a more thorough presentation, see the discussion theme by theme in the next sections):

-the development of the approach of generalized geometries, for the string theory compactifications; -results which question the famous landscape paradigm of string theory compactifications;

-the development of a new approach to the logarithmic conformal theories by defining the corresponding integrable model regularizations on the lattice; -original studies, under way, in the direction of passing from the discrete surface quantum gravity to the continuum (Liouville model) 2-dimensional quantum gravity; -the semi-classical analysis of quantum resonances induced by trapped orbits of classical dynamics has been raised to high art;

-the probabilistic description of repeated non-demolition quantum measurements opens the way to better theoretical understanding of high precision experiments in QED; -the impressive exact calculations for various observables in classical and quantum out of equilibrium systems;

-the developments concerning amplitudes in quantum field theory, both for their phenomenological relevance and their more formal aspects, in particular in connection with string theory; -new results in heavy-ion colllisions at ultra-high energies to study the quark-gluon plasma phase of hadronic matter; -the development of new resummation schemes providing more accurate predictions on large scale structures, necessary for the future cosmological surveys; -significant contributions to the study of the dark components of the Universe, in connection with the observational and experimental programs on-going; -recent progresses in the modelling of real glasses and the conceptual understanding of the glass transition;

-the development of new analytical and numerical methods for the exploration of exotic phases of matter;

-the extension of the ideas of statistical physics to cross-disciplinary research, in particular biophysics, network dynamics, and optimization problems.

Overall, the total of some 1000 publications in the period, with almost a third reaching the top 10% of most cited articles testifies for the overall impact of research performed at IPhT.

Assessment of the unit's academic reputation and appeal

The quality of past recruitments, which allowed to strengthen existing fields or to develop new ones, is a clear sign of the overall appeal of the laboratory. This is emphasized by the unusually large number of ERC fellowships, both senior (2) and junior (7), awarded during the period. But the successes with other sources of external funding are just as impressive (20 "Programmes blancs" of ANR, 15 European networks).

The high attractivity of the IPhT is also testified by the large number of national and international visitors.

The Institute has also a tradition of organizing highly visible conferences that attract the best researchers in the field. One may cite the renowned Itzykson meetings, the Pont d'Avignon conferences and the Beg-Rohu summer school.

Assessment of the unit's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment N/A because of the nature of the research.

Nevertheless the committee identified quite a few activities in outreach (around 50) and the potential applicability of some of the methods developed.

Assessment of the unit's organisation and life

The structure in research teams can be thought in terms of main themes: a) mathematical physics: structures and models b) particle physics and astrophysics c) statistical physics and condensed matter. But quite a few individual members belong to several teams, and possibly two themes. This ensures transversality, which has proved to be a very specific asset of this laboratory. This structure has allowed, and even fostered, the emergence of some new fields of research that have proved to be very successful: string theory and solid-state physics are good illustrations.

The present organisation with a director, seconded by two deputies, with an elected internal Scientific Council and an Institute Council, appears to be well adapted to the needed transversality. The committee takes this opportunity to commend the management for its very positive action during the period.

The committee has met with the various categories of personnel: scientists, supporting administrative and technical staff, students and post-docs. The general atmosphere is good and everybody seems to be satisfied with the role they play within the laboratory and the way it is recognized. Everybody recognizes the quality of the support team, despite the increasing complexity of the tasks needed. There is, however, some worry from the supporting staff about future mutualisation of some tasks with other laboratories.

Postdoctoral fellows play, and will play, a significant role in the scientific development of future years, because of the few hiring of permanent scientists expected. There is presently a worry that the large number of ERC postdocs leads to two distinct categories of postdocs, one (ERC postdocs) who is assigned to a single person and a definite task, and one (lab postdocs) who is free to choose the topic of research and, much in the spirit of IPhT, to move from one field to another. The lab management should take measures to alleviate this distinction.

Assessment of the unit's involvement in training through research

The committee met with the coordinator of ED 107 and identified no pending problem with doctoral training at IphT. The Ph.D. students are highly satisfied with their work conditions and with the scientific and social atmosphere. The progress of each student appears to be closely followed by the management of the laboratory.

Despite the distance from the main teaching institutions, there appears to be a good involvement of the researchers in the teaching at master level in the whole Paris area.

Successful series of graduate courses, the IPhT lectures, are organised by the lab. They are attracting students and young researchers throughout the Paris area.

IPhT was, until recently, rather isolated both geographically and structurally from Universities, but this is changing rapidly with the establishment of the Paris Sacaly University. The lab and its management are well aware of the potential of such an evolution.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The committee commends the laboratory for the quality of the SWOT analysis and of the five-year plan proposed. It builds on the many strengths of the laboratory and appears to be globally feasible, despite the difficulties of the present period.

The committee met with the funding agencies of the laboratory and was pleased to hear the commitment of these agencies, especially CEA, to maintain the funding in the coming period, despite the difficulties of the general environment.

The foreseen absence of hiring at CEA for the coming period is a challenge for the lab and its management.

The committee supports the move to consider tightening the link with CNRS (and possibly the Paris Saclay pole) by changing the status of the laboratory from URA to the more standard "Unité Mixte de Recherche").

The scientific leadership and the renewal of generation make the committee rather optimistic about the lab retaining its leadership in theoretical physics. The important number of non-permanent personnel will imply to reconsider their role in the laboratory, a concern already addressed presently.

As emphasized in the plan proposed, the presence of IPhT in the Paris Saclay pole is an opportunity that must be seized. The laboratory should strengthen its connections with the other theory laboratories in the pole in order to enhance the overall visibility and influence of theoretical physics.  Detailed assessments

 Theme-by-theme analysis

The Mathematical Physics theme spans a wide range of topics which, despite their variety, are deeply interconnected and use very often a common ensemble of theoretical knowledges and tools (like integrable systems and CFT) that IPhT has contributed to develop over the years.

Random matrices, statistical models and quantum gravity

The IPhT has a long and well established tradition of studying statistical models having rich algebraic structures, in particular related to integrable systems,s and in their use to obtain physical relevant quantities in nonperturbative regimes.

IPhT has contributed, from the early 60's on, to the development of random matrix theory (RMT) with a far reaching contribution obtained in the recent years called the topological recursion method. It allows computing large-N expansions of the partition and correlation functions in these models through universal recursion formulae related to the spectral curve associated to the asymptotic spectral density of the matrices. This approach already produced numerous important results in various contexts (scattering amplitudes in topological strings, models of statistical physics, enumerative geometry, knot theory, etc.).

Another application of RMT is the theory of random surfaces related in particular to 2-d quantum gravity models. The Saclay group has been involved, and produced very original results, created new methods, from the very beginning of the studies of random surfaces, so to say of the studies of the discrete 2D quantum gravity. Equally, the group has contributed, from the beginning, to the Liouville model studies of 2D quantum gravity in the continuum. In the recent period (last five years), the researches have been pursued at IPhT, on the Liouville model, with the highest mathematical (analytical) precision of the theory content. As the theory of this model still resists its complete understanding, all precision studies of this model are of great importance in connection to SLE in particular. Equally, the studies of the triangulated random surfaces, without and with matter (like O(n) and Potts model loops, on random surfaces) have been pursued. These are very profound and original studies of local geometrical properties of random surfaces, and of the 2D quantum gravity at the end. An important progress has been made, and is being made, in establishing the link between the two approaches, by starting with the random discrete surfaces and going, in all the fine details, to the continuum Liouville theory of the 2D gravity.

Another connected activity concerns random surfaces of crystal and their description using algebraic objects (Young diagrams, dimer model, lozenge tiling). Exact enumeration of lozenge tilings has been related to algebraic geometry and also to RMT. Other remarkable results concern Totally Symmetric Self-Complementary Plane Partitions, the Razumov-Stroganov conjecture and the development of cluster algebras in relation to integrable models. These are first class results.

Conformal field theory is also one of the major domains of theoretical physics in which the physicists of IPhT have participated from the very beginning, from the start of the field. It is present, more or less significantly, in several domains of studies at IPhT. In particular, these are, among others, string theory, 2D quantum gravity, statistical and solid state physics. Important long term studies have been continued, by the researches of IPhT and their international collaborators, of extreme, non-unitary, logarithmic conformal field theories, many of which having concrete and important applications in solid state and in statistical physics (Quantum Hall, percolation, polymers, disorder, among others). These particular conformal theories are the most difficult ones, still poorly understood on one hand, and strongly demanded in physical applications on the other. Recently, through the work of the IPhT group and its collaborators, a new approach has been developed in regularizing these theories by the appropriate integrable models on the lattice, inheriting the corresponding properties and symmetries. This opens the way to a powerful set of methods of integrable systems and, as well, of numerical methods on the lattice. Important results have already been obtained or are being obtained in this approach. This direction of studies, under IPhT leadership in particular, includes quite a numerous international group of researchers of all levels, starting with numerous PhD students and ending with established leaders in the domain of solid state physics, statistical physics, or the quantum field theory, as the methods being used are quite advanced. Summarizing, the group is very dynamical and producing quite interesting and original results, of the first international level.

Quantum field theory and string theory

The group studying AdS/CFT correspondence is very active and dynamical, with strong interaction with the particle physics theme. Integrability methods play also a crucial role in the study of this AdS/CFT correspondence between (weakly coupled) string theory on AdS space-time and (strongly coupled) supersymmetric gauge theories in Minkowski space-time. The IPhT team has been at the forefront of the international effort in this domain with several important results obtained during the last few years. Using integrability techniques, and in the context of maximally supersymmetric N=4 4-d gauge theory, the anomalous dimension of Konishi operators has been computed at 6-loop order together with various gluon scattering amplitudes. All the results so far validate the conjectured correspondence. An important goal pursued at IPhT is to gain from these results nonperturbative informations for more general (less supersymmetric) gauge theories possibly relevant to real world systems (like strongly coupled QCD).

Away from integrability methods, the structure of UV divergencies in string and supergravity amplitudes has been studied at higher loop orders.

The group of string theory at IPhT is also very active and dynamical. In the non-exhaustive list of main achievements of the group in the period of the last five years, the following results might be highlighted. The studies of the anti-brane back-reaction, which appears to lead to the crash of the de Sitter landscape scenario, one of the main paradigms of the compactified string theory vacua, as candidates for our universe. If finally confirmed, it would be a result of extreme importance for string theory as a whole, where one observes, in a sense, a "divergent" phenomenology, of the low energy limit of the theory. Black hole studies have also been pursued, with equal persistence. In particular, one of the very important results obtained is that of the thermodynamics being replaced by the statistical mechanics of horizonless microstates, followed, in particular, by the refined studies of extremal and near extremal black holes. Further studies of compactifications have been continued, expressed, or unified, as generalized geometries. The studies of stringy quantum corrections, new vertices in quantum gravity, being produced by the low energy limit of the string theory. The list could be continued, going also to the topological string theory studies, crossing from the domain of combinatorics.

In conclusion, the AdS/CFT and string theory groups of IPhT are of the first international class, attracting a constant influx, from everywhere, of students, postdocs, visitors, collaborators. Both groups have collaborations all and across the members of the groups, with other members of IPhT, with constant numerous collaborations all around the international community.

Classical and quantum dynamical systems

Under this sub-theme, a wide range of problems involving the dynamical behaviour of classical and quantum systems has been investigated. The numerous works in this category share a fruitful combination of mathematical rigor and physical relevance. They also reveal the large spectrum of interests and expertise of the team: from classical hydrodynamics to quantum field theory, including semi-classical physics, applications of random matrices to the study of open systems, and fundamental issues in the quantum theory of measurements. It is not possible to enter here into the details of all these achievements. Let us, however, mention two directions in which outstanding results have been produced, namely quantum chaos and quantum measurements.

Semi-classical physics has a long history at IPhT, with an equally long tradition of excellence. Applications of semi-classical analysis to the study of quantum chaos clearly belong to this tradition. The study of the detailed structure of the resonances of quantum dynamical systems associated to trapped orbits of their classical counterparts has been raised to a high art and figures among the most remarkable recent developments in this field. Sophisticated techniques have been developed and the results, e.g. fractal Weyl laws and localization properties, are not only relevant to quantum dynamics but even lead to improvements of our understanding of the underlying classical chaotic systems. It should also be pointed out that the high quality of this research reflects in several collaborations with world-class experts in the domain.

The theory of measurements is still a controversial part of quantum theory but recent advances in experimental capabilities offer new ground to validate our mathematical modelling of measurement processes. In this perspective, the probabilistic approach to repeated non-demolishing indirect measurements developed by the team is not only beautiful from the point of view of its mathematical structure, but is also timely, fitting remarkably well with the results of several recent high-precision experiments on quantum electrodynamics. There is no doubt that these breakthrough results and the methodology adopted to obtain them will play a fundamental role in the future, not only in further developments of measurement theory and its experimental validation, but also in the wider context of non-equilibrium quantum statistical mechanics.

In conclusion, classical and quantum dynamics are very successful themes at IPhT, in continuation of a long tradition of excellence in these fields. The visibility of the team is not only due to its outstanding scientific production, but also to its strong involvement in scientific animation.

Conclusion



Overall opinion of the theme:

In all the subdomains of the theme, the research is at a very high level of fundamental research according to international standards.



Strengths and opportunities:

The theme is very dynamical with collaborations (more often as leaders) all across the international community, and an output of the best scientific level. There has been a constant influx of postdocs, as well as influx and outflux of PhD students. This creates the best opportunity for maintaining the scientific level in the future.

Current research on quantum measurements holds an excellent position with respect to high-class experimental developments. A stronger interaction with experimentalists could be a very good opportunity.



Weaknesses and threats:

The new type of funding, based on projects, is an opportunity (e.g. ERC) but may be a source of instability for this theme, because it may break the activities into different groups, against the IPhT tradition of working together. The situation is positive for the moment, but stability is threatened by these external conditions.



Recommendations:

Members should find the best ways for using the new types of funding in a collaborative way. They should get closer to the University, where they could find new opportunities of recruitment of students, of funding, hiring, and stability.  Detailed assessments

This activity has always been of central importance for IPhT, given the relevance of the field for the "Direction des Sciences de la Matière" as a whole, with in particular IRFU being involved in the leading experimental programs in the domain. Moreover, the field has been going, over the period considered, through a Golden Age of experimental results with the discovery of the Higgs at LHC, the release of cosmological data of the Planck mission, a better understanding of the neutrino system and vast progress in the experimental search for dark matter. In all these aspects, members of IPhT have played a significant role, both nationally and internationally.

Cosmology, astrophysics and physics beyond the Standard Model

Even though one may distinguish between cosmology based on observation on one hand, and physics beyond the Standard Model, in particular as probed in accelerators, on the other hand, the connections between the two are such that it is easier to discuss them as a whole. The group involves nine permanent researchers but the field is vast and, even though each of them plays a significant role in her/his field of expertise, it seems that there is little work in common. Members of this group tend to each have their own circle of external collaborators. Because they are very good, they have a significant impact on the field, but this makes it more difficult to identify a specific expertise that would identify IPhT. What could be the trademark of this group is the combination of in-depth theoretical work and concern to remain closely connected with experiment and/or observation. This makes it a very unique place among the French groups.

It should be said that the theme has suffered from the loss of two leading figures, who were mainly based at CERN but who brought both strong connections with the experimental high energy physics program and a critical mass in the field of cosmology and physics beyond the Standard Model. A hiring has alleviated the loss but has not (yet) restored this critical mass. Moreover, another key senior will leave IPhT to become director of the "Institut d'Astrophysique", a clear sign of leadership but a loss for IPhT again. Let us now review the main contributions of this past period.

In cosmology, the development of a new approach to the formation of large-scale structures by reformulating the perturbation series involved in the computation of the power spectrum has allowed to express simultaneously the high momentum, through resummation, and low momentum behaviors of propagators. This led to consistent perturbative computations, and the development of publicly released codes allowing computing matter densities at 2 loops. Non-gaussianities were also studied by several members of the group, whether in the minimal inflation case, or in more general multi-field situations. Again, a numerical (Boltzmann) code was developed to compute the evolution of second-order perturbations and the 3-point function.

Dark energy and dark matter also represent themes in which the group is very active. In dark energy, the focus has been on building a general framework for theories of dark energy, which allows analyzing observational data in a way as model-independent as possible. Models of modified gravity to explain the acceleration of the expansion of the Universe is also a strong expertise of the group, with, in particular, a systematic analysis of the screening scenarios. Dark matter is also a vivid field where IPhT made significant and influential contributions, especially regarding the indirect detection and the interpretation of signals observed in recent years, but also in devising new and innovative scenarios for dark matter taking into account these indications.

Another potentially rich way of addressing the cosmological issues is through the direct detection of gravitational waves. The group at IPhT is one of the centres in Europe where this approach is developed in the most consistent way. Significant contributions to the field, especially regarding the possibility of identifying a strongly first order phase transition in the 1 to 1000 TeV range by measuring gravitational waves in space, have made IPhT a recognized centre of expertise.

Neutrinos make a natural connection between cosmology and particle physics and the contributions of the group have been significant especially in devising successful scenarios for leptogenesis, the presently favoured model for understanding the matter-antimatter asymmetry in the Universe.

Finally the period has been marked in high-energy physics by the search for the last missing piece of the Standard Model, the Higgs, and culminated with its discovery. Members of the group, both at CERN and in Saclay, have played a very visible role in building models representing the various possibilities, from the most standard versions to the ones with no Higgs, and using the whole array of physics models beyond the Standard Model. What characterizes these attempts is both an excellent knowledge of the different versions of physics beyond the Standard Model and a proximity to experiments. They are well equipped to continue playing a significant role in unravelling the properties of the scalar particle found at LHC and accompanying the experimental search for physics beyond the Standard Model.

QCD and hadronic physics

Over the years IPhT has made many important contributions to QCD, the theory of strong interactions. This concerns both scattering processes of quarks and gluons, which are now probed at the LHC at the highest energies, as well as properties of the quark-gluon plasma produced in heavy-ion collisions.Processes with multiple jets are a crucial ingredient for physics analyses at the LHC. As part of the BLACKHAT collaboration IPhT has played a key role in numerical calculations of one-loop amplitudes and their implementation in Monte-Carlo programs. As a result, complicated processes such as W-boson production with 5 additional jets can be satisfactorily described. These results are important ingredients in the analyses of the ATLAS and CMS collaborations. A further milestone of QCD studies at IPhT is the development of the anti-kt algorithm used to define jets, which is then implemented in the FastJet package. The enormous pile-up in proton-proton collisions at the LHC can only be mastered with these sophisticated tools of jet physics.

Heavy-ion collisions at ultrarelativistic energies at the LHC allow studying the quark-gluon plasma phase of hadronic matter in detail. In this way, one can obtain information about non-perturbative aspects of non-Abelian gauge theories, which is of interest both conceptually and also with respect to applications in cosmology. IPhT is one of the leading institutes in this research field worldwide. An important recent result is the factorization of the initial state in heavy ion collisions, which extends well-known features of protonproton collisions. An interesting, still not fully settled, issue concerns the saturation of the gluon density in high-energy heavy-ion collisions. An effective description is achieved by the Color Glass Condensate, where initial partons are represented by classical colour currents.

The phenomenon of asymmetric dijets in Pb-Pb collisions has received much attention in recent years, since it gives valuable insight into the nature of the quark-gluon plasma. An important recent result of the IPhT group is the first complete calculation of the gluon branching in the presence of the medium. Colour coherence effects are rapidly washed out by the medium leading to a classical branching process. This simple and intuitive picture can explain the efficient energy loss of partons in the medium, which is crucial to understand the asymmetric dijets. Valuable information about the equation of state of the quark-gluon plasma is obtained by analyzing azimuthal anisotropies of particles in the final state, analogous to temperature fluctuations if the cosmic microwave background.

Amplitudes in Quantum Field Theory and Super Yang Mills

IPhT has one of the internationally leading groups in the field of scattering amplitudes in quantum field theory, in particular QCD. Important progress has been made in the analysis of amplitudes for massless particles to arbitrary loop orders, one-loop amplitudes for massive particles and the connection to amplitudes for gravitons. These developments are conceptually important, and they have a direct impact on computations of Standard Model amplitudes relevant for LHC experiments.

Very interesting is also the progress in N=4 Super Yang Mills theory. Particularly intriguing is the dual conformal symmetry and the correspondence between gluon amplitudes and Wilson-line amplitudes. It is remarkable that the amplitudes in gauge theories are directly related to amplitudes in supergravity theories. These relations can partly be understood by means of the AdS/CFT correspondence in string theory.

On the whole the topic of amplitudes provides an important bridge between phenomenological research areas and mathematical physics, in particular string theory. Hence, these research activities significantly contribute to the scientific coherence of IPhT.

Conclusion



Overall opinion of the theme:

Over the period, members of IPhT working on this theme have shown leadership and obtained very visible results that significantly contributed to the high reputation of the laboratory.



Strengths and opportunities:

The activity on scattering amplitudes in quantum field theory shows a strong international leadership, and provides a rich connection with mathematical physics, much in the spirit of IPhT.

The strength in particle physics (hadronic physics and physics beyond the Standard Model) and cosmology is a combination of in-depth theoretical understanding and of proximity to experiments. The outstanding experimental results of the period (in particular from LHC at CERN and Planck in space) have thus provided an excellent opportunity for the laboratory to produce scientific results at the best level.



Weaknesses and threats:

The main threat comes from the departure of senior members in the field of cosmology and physics beyond the Standard Model. The committee feels that the group has all the potential to overcome these departures in the coming years. This will however require more synergy.



Recommendations:

It is recommended that the researchers in cosmology and physics beyond the Standard Model aim at collaborating more, in order to build on the strength of their individual research. This is even more important after the departure of some senior members. Sharing post-docs or Ph.D. students might help in this respect.  Detailed assessments

This activity has a long and brilliant tradition of excellence at IPhT, in particular in the study of phase transitions, spin glasses and disordered systems, and various applications to soft condensed matter and biophysics. Over the past decade, the IPhT has led an active policy of hiring young researchers, who have been very active and successful, reaching international recognition, as is evidenced by the three ERC starting grants and by the several ANR grants awarded in the past five years, the numerous invitations to international conferences, the participation to several European networks, or the hosting of a Chaire d'excellence Blaise Pascal. These young senior members have brought new themes to the IPhT, in particular the study of strongly correlated electronic systems with a strong emphasis on new collective states of matter and quantum phase transitions, and several striking applications of statistical physics to optimization problems and spatial networks. It should be emphasized that these new activities have largely benefited from the strong expertise of IPhT as a whole in Statistical Physics, Quantum Field Theory, and Integrable systems, thus achieving a remarkable synthesis between new ideas and the already existing skills. It is clear that, given the previous achievements of the members of the group, and its marked rejuvenation during the past decade, the committee is confident that the IPhT will remain an international leader in these research themes.

It is impossible to give here an exhaustive list of all the important contributions made by IPhT members in Statistical and condensed matter physics in the past five years.

As already mentioned, the area of disordered and/or out of equilibrium systems has been a longstanding and successful tradition at IPhT. The past years have seen many interesting contributions to the understanding of low energy excitations in spin glasses, through a combination of analytical works and numerical simulations. Several new aspects of out-of-equilibrium physics have been explored, bringing new ideas in a very challenging field. One should mention here the intriguing study of stochastic models with an asymmetric irreversible dynamics with the discovery of two regimes of violation of the standard fluctuationdissipation relation, or the development of real-space renormalization group procedures to compute the relaxation time of pure and random Ising models on various lattices. An impressive progress has been made in the analytical computation of the full counting statistics for open asymmetric exclusion models in one dimension, which is likely to open new perspectives in this very difficult but important theme of research. A broad and deep research program on the physics of glasses has already brought important new insights, by putting emphasis on real-space and time characteristics of glasses. New static length-scales have been introduced, inspired by the possibility of a true thermodynamic transition at finite temperature. It has been demonstrated that this transition may be observed at equilibrium if one introduces a finite concentration of particles whose position is pinned to those in a given equilibrium configuration. This opens very interesting perspectives in order to assess the relevance of a thermodynamic transition in realistic models.

A strength of the group at IPhT is its strong implication in applying ideas from Statistical physics to a wide range of problems. Important progresses have been made in the prediction of RNA secondary structures with pseudo knots. Special emphasis has been put on the prediction of the topological genus, and powerful algorithms have been made available on-line, attracting several thousand visits per year. Two other web servers are dedicated to finding largest common motives among protein structures, and to the computation of small-angle X-ray scattering profiles induced by a protein in a water solution. Another stream of applications is the study of spatial networks, with a strong emphasis on their evolution and its interplay with the actual structure of the network. A very interesting aspect of this activity is the thorough confrontation of the theoretical models with real data, and its truly cross-disciplinary character. Fruitful contacts have been made with geographers, in particular on various problems associated to transportation networks in large cities. Finally, a very successful activity applying concepts from spin glass theory to the design of powerful algorithms has developed in the past years. An impressive recent achievement is the invention and detailed analysis of a probabilistic reconstruction algorithm in compressed sensing whose success rate is very close to the theoretical optimal limit. A large part of the statistical physics and condensed matter group is involved in studying quantum models, often with strong correlations, and the possibility to stabilize exotic phases at low temperature, or to achieve a quantitative understanding of out-of-equilibrium physics. While being a recent theme, and as such mostly composed of young seniors members, this subgroup has reached a significant size and has acquired an excellent international visibility. As in most IPhT scientific activity, many publications involve transverse collaboration: for instance, there have been extremely fruitful collaborations about relating some of these quantum problems either to classical statistical mechanics computations or to field-theory approaches.

One of the most important topic in modern condensed matter deals with the understanding of the hightemperature superconductivity observed in some oxides. These studies, which involve cutting-edge numerical algorithms, have provided strong evidence that a minimal one-band model, such as the Hubbard model, could sustain a superconducting phase. Another long-standing program of research deals with the study of quantum criticality, which can give rise to exotic behaviour and phase transitions. Analogies between heavy fermion materials and cuprates have been explored, giving rise to an interesting new scenario for the pseudo-gap phase of the cuprates in which an exotic quadrupolar density wave competes with super-conductivity. On these subjects, there are close collaborations with other teams from the area, both experimentalists and theoreticians. To summarize, recent progress has been achieved at IPhT either using phenomenological approaches or more microscopic numerical calculations. It is particularly interesting to envision combining both kinds of approaches in the near future, though it will require some nontrivial technical development in the numerical algorithms. Last but not least, there is a sustained effort to perform more realistic calculations using band-structure calculations plus interactions, which looks very promising.

Another line of research concerns magnetic insulators, for which spin degrees of freedom could stabilize exotic phases (for instance without any order, the so-called spin liquid). This team has been able to make some very interesting progress (i) on the analytical side by classifying various spin liquids or mean-field solutions; (ii) comparing to actual experiments performed on frustrated materials. Another intriguing possibility is that these frustrated models could be described thanks to quantum dimer models, which are constrained models that can be treated exactly in some limits, or can also be connected to classical statistical mechanics model. One main advantage of these models is that they provide explicit realizations of even more exotic spin liquids that have topological properties. Many results have been obtained thanks to explicit computations of the entanglement properties. This is another example involving a fruitful collaboration between several researchers with different backgrounds.

Non-equilibrium physics is also a hot topic in condensed matter since very few exact results are known. For instance, computing the relationship between current and voltage going through a junction is an extremely hard problem, and clearly a very crucial one for any application device. Until recently, it was not even clear whether an exact solution (in the sense of Bethe Ansatz) could be achieved. Thanks to a sustained effort over the past years, such exact results have been obtained at IPhT, and then confirmed numerically, which clearly represents a major breakthrough in this highly challenging field.

Finally, there is a recent activity on low-dimensional materials such as carbon nanotubes, superconductor junctions, graphene, topological insulators etc. with several local collaborations too. In this field aiming at providing quantitative descriptions of these materials, several realistic ingredients such as impurities, decoherence, and so on, have been taken into account. At the same time, an important direction has been to propose novel tools amenable to easier measurements for experimentalists, which could provide smoking-gun signatures of topological properties, such as Majorana edge-states.

It should be noted that IPhT members in statistical and condensed matter physics have not only demonstrated a strong commitment to research at the highest international level, but they have been strongly engaged in various activities aiming at the diffusion of scientific knowledge and the training of young researchers. For example IPhT members in this field have been involved in the organisation of about 30 international schools, workshops or conferences, they have taught several high level courses in such prestigious schools as Beg Rohu, Les Houches, and contributed to seven IPhT advanced PhD courses. Ten PhD theses have been defended in the last five years, and seven PhD students are presently working in this general theme. Several IPhT members have also taught in various universities in the Paris area and in Grandes Écoles, in particular École Polytechnique and École Normale Supérieure. In the present context of the constitution of the new Paris-Saclay University, IPhT represents an important asset that should be fully exploited.

Conclusion

Overall opinion of the theme:

IPhT has been very successful in developing new research directions, in particular towards condensed matter theory. Meanwhile its traditional skills in statistical physics, field theory and integrable systems have been used with great success in new areas such as real glasses, out of equilibrium systems, biophysics, complex networks, algorithms and optimization problems.



Strengths and opportunities:

The recent recruitment of several young senior members who have successfully brought new themes of activity, while being able to benefit from the expertise of the previous generations; they are strongly involved in many collaborations, at the regional and international levels; they attract many students and post-docs and have received many grants.



Weaknesses and threats:

This looks like the drawback of success, but there may be a risk of fragmentation of this theme over many subfields; the high proportion of post-docs supported by research grants and no longer by the Institute reinforces this trend.



Recommendations:

Members are encouraged to explore the possibilities of developping more common projects within the group. As a step in this direction, post-docs could be encouraged to work with more than one member of the group. -Mise en place du titre de « directeur de recherche ou expert émérite » : dans un contexte d'allongement de la vie professionnelle et du souhait de certains des experts scientifiques de poursuivre une activité scientifique au-delà de l'âge auquel ils auraient pu faire valoir leur droit à la retraite, la proposition vise à les inciter à partir en retraite dès que toutes les conditions liées au départ en retraite sont remplies, et à leur proposer de continuer à collaborer à nos travaux de recherche à temps partiel.

 Conduct of the visit

-Mise en oeuvre des contrats CDD à objet défini.

-Accueil d'ERC et de chaires d'excellence dans les laboratoires 2) En page 5, "Weaknesses and threats related to the context "A potential threat is the low involvement in the regional research structure (Paris Saclay) at a time of a major reshaping, and in a configuration where this represents the most plausible source of extra resources.

Les "Recommandations" de la page 6 reviennent sur ce point et suggèrent :

"IPhT might increase its influence by teaming up with other theory laboratories in the area."

M

  . Roland COMBESCOT (Directeur de l'École Doctorale de physique de la région parisienne n°107) Mr Jean-Paul DURAUD, Direction des Sciences de la Matière, CEA Mr Jean-Jacques GUILLEMINOT, Délégation Régionale Ile-de-France-Sud, CNRS Mr Barend Van TIGGELEN, Institut de Physique, CNRS

L

  'IPhT n'est effectivement pas très fortement impliqué dans le projet d'université Paris-Saclay. Il faut néanmoins noter que cela n'est pas le résultat d'un désintérêt, mais de la difficulté intrinsèque d'insérer une toute petite structure comme l'IPhT dans un projet d'ambition et de taille mondiale. L'IPhT a pris et prend encore des initiatives pour améliorer cette situation. En particulier, pour faire le lien avec le point 1), nous pensons depuis longtemps que l'accueil facilité d'universitaires dans nos murs pour effectuer leurs recherches, et en parallèle la possibilité donnée aux personnels de l'IPhT d'enseigner de façon transparente dans l'Université Paris-Saclay sont parmi des pistes les plus prometteuses pour pallier l'absence de recrutements pour la période à venir. Mais une telle négociation va bien au delà de l'IPhT, et les partenaires naturels de l'Université sont les tutelles CEA et CNRS. Dès qu'un tel accord de principe verra le jour, nous pensons que l'IPhT sera en position favorable du fait de son attractivité d'une part, et de son implication dans l'enseignement (en particulier via les cours de l'IPhT, dont la réputation n'est plus à faire) d'autre part.

Theme 1:

		Mathematical physics: structures and models
	Manager's name:	Mr Bertrand EYNARD

Workforce Theme workforce in Full Time Equivalents As at 30/06/2013 As at 01/01/2015

	FTE for permanent professors
	FTE for permanent EPST or EPIC researchers	18	18
	FTE of other permanent staff without research duties (IR, IE, PRAG, etc.)
	FTE for other professors (PREM, ECC, etc.)
	FTE for postdoctoral students having spent at least 12 months in the unit	13
	FTE for other EPST or EPIC researchers (DREM, etc.) excluding postdoctoral students
	FTE for other contractual staff without research duties
	FTE for doctoral students	7
	TOTAL	38	18

Theme 2 :

 2 Particle physics and AstrophysicsManager's name:

	Mr Stéphane LAVIGNAC

Workforce Theme workforce in Full Time Equivalents

		As at	As at
		30/06/2013	01/01/2015
	FTE for permanent professors
	FTE for permanent EPST or EPIC researchers	15	15
	FTE of other permanent staff without research duties (IR, IE, PRAG, etc.)
	FTE for other professors (PREM, ECC, etc.)
	FTE for postdoctoral students having spent at least 12 months in the unit	10
	FTE for other EPST or EPIC researchers (DREM, etc.) excluding postdoctoral students
	FTE for other contractual staff without research duties
	FTE for doctoral students	9
	TOTAL	34	15

Theme 3 :

 3 Statistical physics and condensed matterManager's name:

	Mr. Olivier PARCOLLET
	Workforce
	Theme workforce in Full Time Equivalents	As at 30/06/2013	As at 01/01/2015
	FTE for permanent professors
	FTE for permanent EPST or EPIC researchers	17	16
	FTE of other permanent staff without research duties (IR, IE, PRAG, etc.)
	FTE for other professors (PREM, ECC, etc.)
	FTE for postdoctoral students having spent at least 12 months in the unit	7
	FTE for other EPST or EPIC researchers (DREM, etc.) excluding postdoctoral students
	FTE for other contractual staff without research duties
	FTE for doctoral students	5
	TOTAL	29	16

  The committee considers as a significant threat the absence of hiring from CEA in the coming period. Given the fact that other sources of hiring will undoubtedly be scarce, this endangers the potential of the laboratory for a necessary renewal of staff and expertise."Les problèmes de renouvellement des thèmes, du personnel et de l'expertise sont effectivement un enjeu pour la période à venir. Il convient cependant de souligner que cette situation n'est pas spécifique au CEA. Dans la période d'économie budgétaire actuelle, tous les organismes de recherche doivent, ou devront très bientôt, faire face en matière de recrutement à des difficultés de même nature.Dans ce cadre, par lettre en date du 17 avril 2013, les Ministres en charge du redressement productif, de l'écologie, du développement durable et de l'énergie, de l'enseignement supérieur et de la recherche, et du budget ont demandé au CEA une réflexion stratégique de fond sur ses programmes et d'élaborer un Plan Moyen Long Direction des Sciences de la Matière Terme (PMLT). Ce PMLT a été présenté aux ministères concernés lors du Comité à l'Energie Atomique du 9 Décembre 2013. Pour le volet de la recherche fondamentale, le respect du cadrage impose une maîtrise de la masse salariale qui se traduit par une baisse des effectifs.Dans ce contexte, la pyramide des âges de l'IPhT n'est pas favorable au renouvellement. En effet, les perspectives de recrutement sont limitées compte tenu du faible nombre de départ à la retraite d'autant que les réformes récentes ont décalé d'en gros dix ans le calendrier de cessation d'activité des agents CEA. Il n'en reste pas moins vrai que le rétablissement d'un flux régulier d'entrées et de sortie est indispensable à moyen terme et l'IPhT et ses tutelles en sont pleinement conscientes. Ainsi compte tenu du contexte (loi sur les retraites, contraintes sur les effectifs liés au PMLT), et sachant que toute entrée sera conditionnée à un départ, les différents leviers sur lesquels la tutelle se mobilise pour garder son attractivité sont les suivants :

	Visit dates
	Start:	Thursday, November 21th, 9:00 am
	End:	Friday, November 22th, 6:00 pm	M. Pierre GLAUDES
			Directeur de la Section des Unités
			de Recherche
	Visit site:		AERES
	Institution:	Institut de Physique Théorique	20, rue Vivienne
		CEA Saclay	75002 PARIS
		91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex,	Saclay, le 6 mai 2014
	Conduct or programme of visit
	Thursday, 21 November N/Réf. : DSM/Dir-14-0706
	9:00-9:30 am	Closed meeting of the committee
	9:30-10:15 am	Presentation of the Institute by the director, followed by a discussion
	10:15-10:45 am	Break
	10:45-12:45 am	Scientific presentations:
		Mr Marco CIRELLI: Looking for Dark Matter
	Mr Kirone MALLICK: Fluctuations far from equilibrium Nous partageons largement les conclusions présentées dans le rapport d'évaluation.
	Ms Mariana GRANA: A string theory de Sitter landscape? Deux points de l'analyse et une recommandation répétée tout au long du rapport
	Mr David KOSOWER: Beautiful Applications of Scattering Amplitudes appellent toutefois les commentaires suivants.
	Mr Giulio BIROLI: Amorphous order: how to unveil the existence of long-range 1) En page 5, "Weaknesses and threats related to the context"
	"	order in disordered materials
		Mr Bertrand DUPLANTIER : Liouville Quantum Gravity & KPZ
	12:45-2:00 pm	Buffet Lunch
	2:00-2:30 pm	Meeting with IPhT direction
	2:30-5:30 pm	Meeting between committee members and thematic groups
	5:30-6:30 pm	Closed meeting of the committee
	Friday, 22 November
	9:00-9:30 am	Presentation of the project for IPhT by the director, followed by a discussion
	9:30-10:00 am	Meeting with graduate students
	10:00-10:30 am	Meeting with postdocs

Objet : Commentaires sur le rapport AERES sur l'IPhT Le directeur de l'IPhT et sa tutelle remercient le président, le délégué scientifique et les membres du comité d'experts pour leur analyse approfondie de l'IPhT.

L'IPhT ne manquera pas de mettre en oeuvre les recommandations constructives émises dans le rapport avec le soutien de sa tutelle et visera à conserver toute son attractivité malgré un contexte budgétaire particulièrement contraint. Commissariat à l'énergie atomique et aux énergies alternatives Centre de Saclay l 91191 Gif-sur-Yvette Cedex T. +33 (0)1 69 08 82 37 l F. +33 (0)1 69 08 40 04 Maria.faury@cea.fr Etablissement public à caractère industriel et commercial l RCS Paris B 775 685 019 …/…

 Supervising bodies' general comments

Specific points to be mentioned

The committee thanks the management of the laboratory for the excellent organisation of this review, both before and during the visit. It also expresses its thanks to all the lab members for the quality of the presentations and of the exchanges with the committee.

Pour ce qui est de la possibilité de se rapprocher d'autres laboratoires, dédiés à la physique théorique ou non, pour former un noyau plus visible, elle a également été explorée à l'IPhT à plusieurs reprises et elle continue de l'être. Le projet de pôle de physique fondamentale de l'Orme des Merisiers est un exemple parmi d'autres. Contrairement à beaucoup d'autres activités de recherche, pour lesquelles une logique la mutualisation incontournable force les rapprochements, la théorie n'a pas d'incitation forte au regroupement, et les projets portés par l'Idex, en particulier immobiliers, ont plutôt incité les unités de théorie à mieux s'intégrer dans leur tutelle historique.

Néanmoins, même si cela va sans dire, rappelons que l'IPhT est intégré à trois labex et trois projets de départements, ce qui est beaucoup vu sa taille, mais s'explique par sa vocation multidisciplinaire.

3) À plusieurs reprises, disséminées au sein du rapport, apparaît la recommandation d'encourager les membres de l'IPhT à monter des projets de demandes de ressources externes en commun afin de préserver la cohérence et la cohésion de l'Institut, que ce soit dans les modes de financement de la recherche ou dans l'insertion dans de grands projets. Cette recommandation est entièrement reprise à son compte par l'IPhT et sera l'objet d'un travail en profondeur dans les prochaines années.

Michel BAUER Directeur de l'IPhT

Maria FAURY Directrice adjointe des Sciences de la Matière


 Introduction History and geographical location of the unit

The SIMOPRO laboratory is located in Saclay near Paris, within one of the historical research campuses of the Commissariat à l'Energie Atomique et aux Energies Alternatives. The laboratory belongs to the life sciences division which was originally founded to work on Biological, radiological, nuclear and explosive risks. Accordingly, its main focus is on new chemical and biochemical entities with potential applications in diagnostic and therapeutic areas.

SIMOPRO was created in 2008, under the supervision of its present director with the aim to understand architecture and function of proteins and to engineer selected proteins into useful scaffolds for basic and applied research. SIMOPRO ("the laboratory") gathers two laboratories (or "departments") comprising three teams each. There are in addition 5 technological platforms with expertise in analytical chemistry, protein production and purification, cristallogenesis, and animal housing. The fith platform is very specific to the CEA as it ensures production of radioactively labelled small molecules ( 3 H, 125 I, 99m Tc, 14 C).

Management team

The management team is composed of a director and a vice-director, supported by an executive board of team leaders and a laboratory council of elected members. A 4-person administrative team is in charge of budget, secretary, building maintainance, orders processing and laundry. The research done by members of the unit is globally of high quality in both basic and applied research.

AERES nomenclature

SVE1-LS7

Unit workforce

Unit workforce

The laboratory is clearly a leader in the field of molecule labeling, structural biology of mini proteins and enzymes and masters several technologies in the field of protein production, purification, mutagenesis, structure solution and molecule design based on miniproteins.

The association of all teams to the LabEx LERMIT is fundamental for the future of the laboratory and for its integration in the forthcoming structuration of the Saclay-Paris Sud research campus.

The coupling of basic and applied research with major national defense issues is an added value to the activities of the laboratory, which is recognized nationally and internationally for its expertise in the protection against biohazards and potential bio terrorist attacks. The laboratory thus maintains important interactions with government organizations (Army, ministries of defense, domestic affairs, foreign affairs …) and has acquired reputed expertise in bacterial, chemical, nuclear risks management. This also ensures (CBRNe funding) part of the funding for basic and applied research on toxins mechanisms of action and antidotes development. To increase SIMOPRO ability to recruit high levels scientists, post-doc and students significant efforts have been dedicated to establish many International collaborative projects. Thus, SIMOPRO' teams were/are involved in 11 European Projects (One as coordinator, Venomics) and two NHI projects over the evaluation period.

A number of high quality technical facilities are available to cover needs in protein expression, radioactive and other isotopes labeling of molecules, cristallogenesis, in vivo imaging. These would deserve upgrading to maintain the high level of services that are expected in the future.

Overall, there are excellent opportunities for translational science with envisaged of miniproteins as tool for basic research, but also for tissue addressing systems and therapeutic or diagnostic applications. Apart the mini-CD4 project leading to several publications and two European projects, new miniproteins have been tailored and tested for therapeutic applications, such as the mamba-quaretine toxin for kidney polykistoses and hyponatria and the development of an inhibitor of HB-EGF from its natural ligand, diphtheria toxin, for the treatment of rapidly progressive glomerulonephritis and other HB-EGF-related diseases. In addition, based on their results, two groups from SIMOPRO are involved in international projects funded for the next 5 years, comprising preclinical evaluations in animal model and phase I human clinical trial.

Weaknesses and threats related to the context

There is a serious and actual risk, linked to budget cuts and reduction in personnel recruitment, that the unit will not be able to manage all current research topics in the future.

The task force in biology on the CEA campus in Saclay is pretty limited. Scientific animation presently relies mainly on initiatives from the LabEx LERMIT, the center of gravity of which is rather far from Saclay. Attendance to seminars is thus not easy and causes long travel periods of time. There appears to be a limited number of invited scientists who could give seminars within the unit and promote the education of the younger investigators (Ph.D. and post-docs which appear to be rather isolated).

Contribution of laboratory members to teaching efforts is very heterogeneous. Some researchers are deeply involved and teaching and have thus numerous contacts with students for master training while others could certainly do better.

Recommendations

The laboratory should consider a future strategy to cope with the significantly reduced possibilities to hire researchers and important cuts in recurrent budget coming from the CEA. All teams are therefore strongly invited to focus their activities around a central common theme, e.g. miniproteins with therapeutic and diagnostic potential that is the most recognized core expertise of the laboratory.

Although the laboratory takes part to the LabEx Lermit which offers scientific events, local scientific animation should be further developped to counterbalance the relative isolation of the laboratory that results from poor representation of biology on the campus in its present configuration. Regular conferences given by invited external speakers might be regarded as a possibility, particularly considering the large scientific community near Paris.

Information to personnel about unit strategy and decisions is scarse. Laboratory internal communication deserves improvement through, for instance, general assembly venues, and more frequent consultations of the laboratory council.

Sustained efforts should be devoted to participation in training in order to attract doctoral fellows more efficiently. The laboratory has a unique expertise (synthetic biology applied to protein engineering and NRBCe research) that deserves dissemination in the university and in other research centers.

 Detailed assessments

Assessment of scientific quality and outputs Globally, during the past period, the unit members have published 205 articles in peer reviewed journals, including 7 of high to exceptional level (1 Cell, 2 NAR, 1 Plos Pathog, 1Blood, 1 PNAS, 1 Nat Chem Biol). Approximately half of the articles are issued from the laboratory as can be judged from authorship analysis, however, for the high impact articles corresponding authors belong to SIMOPRO.

Laboratory members gave 104 invited conferences at national and international congresses (including 8 Gordon conferences) and gave another 51 talks/seminars in research institutes. Research themes are globally original (MMP inhibitors with important physiological roles, studies on immunogenicity, modeling and production of miniproteins for therapeutic purposes, analysis of toxins mechanisms of action) and some groups are clearly leaders in their field at the international level. Yet, the team-by-team analysis (below) shows heterogeneity in the average amount and quality of publications.

Assessment of the unit's academic reputation and appeal

Some indicators of the laboratory reputation are detailed above, such as the number of invited lectures at international conferences and research centers, but an important factor is the capacity of attracting fund for research which is to be considered very high.

The coordination of national (10 ANR/INCA grants), several DGA/NRBC (10) contracts, eu-projects/networks as coordinators (1), Work package leader (1) or co-investigators (10) well illustrates the reputation on the laboratory teams at the national and international level.

The participation of all teams to the LabEx LERMIT (and of one team to a second LabEx: VRI -Vaccine Research Institute), to the Idex project MABIO and to the Investment for the future DIGIDIAG (Santé & biotechnologies call 2011; coordination of WP14) also highlight the pivotal position of the unit in the structuration of the research campus in Saclay-Paris Sud that is underway.

Two teams have received grants from the NIH for 4 years.

In addition, it should be noted that the laboratory succeeded in attracting three scientists from the CNRS and one Emeritus Research Director to join the group working on venom toxins to develop toxinology in the peripheral and central nervous system. This team extension is particularly important because it will expand the scientific collaboration on marine neurotoxins which is a scientific suject of major importance as well as a matter of paramount concern for a major French industry.

Master students are applying for their laboratory training. Yet, the internal CEA rules renders their recruitment too expensive to afford enroling as many as teams or projects could accommodate.

Assessment of the unit's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment

During the past five years the laboratory globally increased its income in research contracts (1,36 M€ in 2012), which represent a 35% increase as compared to 2009. This increase is couterbalanced by a significant reduction of CEA recurrent support to the unit which has passed from 800 k€ to 470 k€ in the same period.

Simopro researchers have filed 16 patents in the past period and launched two start-up companies : Vaxeal and VenomTech to which they have licensed some of the patents.

One of the team leaders is coordinator for biology of the joint ministerial program of R&D against chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear and explosives (CNRBe) risks. As such, he supervises 20 research programs involving 30 laboratories from the CEA and 15 other french laboratories from CNRS, INSERM, and universities. The activity also includes contracting with public and private bodies and promoting technology transfer to industrial partners and to the Biotox-Piratox network in charge of public health and safety. Another team leader is in the advisory board of the Labex LERMIT, supervising the 35 research programs currently run by 45 laboratories from the Labex and is a member of the INSERM national committee 8. Products, know-hows and detection methods developped in the unit were transferred to companies such as Abraxis, Novakits, GeneSystems, NBC-Sys,Antabio, Sanofi, UCB Pharma.

Several researcher are members, and one of them is president, of the French society of toxinology (SFET).

Assessment of the unit's organisation and life

The laboratory is headed by its director assisted by a vice-director and an administrative team comprising a secretary, one financial administrator and two persons for general laboratory maintenance.

Team leaders meet regularly to discuss science issues. Informations however do not come down at the researcher and technician levels.

A laboratory council does appear in the rules of procedures of the laboratory but does not indeed meet regularly. Thus collaborators complain about poor internal communication and absence of general assemblies to share information.

Isolation is a problem for some categories of researchers (no tradition to organize seminars) particularly the younger people who need to participate to congresses, specialized schools, training courses etc.

Technicians would take advantage of internal mobility offers being published and would be interested to attend continuous training programs.

Assessment of the unit's involvement in training through research

Several members of the laboratory assume teaching duties, but to a limited extent on average. 20 PhD thesis defenses were held during the past five years, showing a remarkable dynamism of teams to train PhD students.

Altogether, the laboratory staff provides more than 100 hours of lectures in several universities, mostly in Paris and South of Paris, in toxicology, protein engineering, biomolecular engineering.

Several researchers have also organized or co-organized conferences including national meetings on toxin research, one Gordon conference, round tables and workshop on biohazards and biodefense, among others.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

For the future period, the laboratory capitalizes on its expertise in mini proteins design, synthesis and structural biology, to develop engineering for therapeutic and diagnostic purposes. It is supported in this effort by its own solid assets as well as by the task force of the LabEx LERMIT that provides complementary expertise, especially in animal models, and access to hospital services and clinical research. This strategy is in line with the need to focus on major task forces of the laboratory and justifies the orientation of the unit towards medical research institutions.  Detailed assessments

Assessment of scientific quality and outputs

The team leader is an internationally recognized leader in the development of matrix metalloproteinases inhibitors. The team has developped a selective MMP12 inhibitor. This work is novel as no other selective MMP12 inhibitor is currently available. The team has since demonstrated in a mouse model that this inhibitor can stabilize atherosclerotic plaque, which has a potential in translational medicine because the rupture of unstable atherosclerotic plaques is the commonest cause of coronary heart disease complications such as myocardial infarction. Other important findings and methodology developments from this team include the detection of an endogenous MM12 active form with a novel broad spectrum activity-based probe, and the finding of simple pseudodipeptides with a P2' glutamate as a novel inhibitor family of MMPs and other metzincins. Another recent and important novel finding is that MMP-12 inhibitors might represent a novel class of antiviral agents (Nature Medicine, in press). Regarding novel technologies, the group has/is involved in several International programs dealing with the toxicology of nanoparticles (Nanogenotox FP7, Nanomile FP7) and use of nanoparticles in nanomedicine (Nano-Athero, FP7). These programs will help the team to collaborate with the Labex NanoInnove located in the Paris-Sacaly Campus. From 2008 to 2013, the team published 38 papers, many of which are in leading journals in their research field, such as FASEB J (1), ATVB (1), JACS (1), JBC (5), J Med Chem (1) and J Prot Res (1).

Assessment of the team's academic reputation and appeal

The group has a very high impact in the community. Its international recognition and visibility are reflected by their participation in a number of international conferences (x12) as invited speakers or session chairs, and also by a number of international research programs (NIH grant (x1) and European grants (x4)). The work of the team involves extensive collaborations with researchers in Canada and many European countries.

At the national level, the team is involved in several ANR contracts and is a member of the LabEx LERMIT. The team leader is in the advisory board of the Labex LERMIT and is the co-leader of the Lermit workpackage « new strategies in drug targeting in cardiovascular diseases and a member of the INSERM national committee 8.

Assessment of the team's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment

The team has a long-term collaboration with a biotechnology company Vect-Horus. They have 2 patents and other one pending.

Assessment of the unit's involvement in training through research

The group shows no implication in teaching besides training of PhD students.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The research strategy and plan for the next five years is ambitious and innovative, with potential for medical applications.

The planned research program is an expansion of the current research of this team, with scientifically sounds objectives. These objectives should be feasible to achieve because the team has relevant expertise and technical skills, a number of research grants, and access to a range of facilities and tools.

Conclusion  Strengths and opportunities:

The team is internationally recognized in its field of research and thus benefits from many national and international collaborations that are already funded for the next five years.

The team has a strong track record of publications and research grants.

Their research program is innovative with strong potential for medical application.

They have wide international connections/networks with other leading researchers in the field.

The team leader is deeply involved in all international protease networks.

 Weaknesses and threats:

As a consequence of poorly established links with pharma industries and clinical research, patents are not yet licensed.

The very limited, to almost non-existent, involvement in teaching renders very diffcult to attract students for PhD training as well as post docs. This is of particular importance if one considers that CEA will not recruit new researchers in the next five years.

 Recommendations:

It is recommended that the team continue to extend their research in developing protease inhibitors and methods for detection of active proteases, and their potential for medical applications. The team leader should thus pay more attention at identifying partners for drug development as this is the logical progression of the work carried out.

To attenuate the difficulties linked to the drop of personnel recruitment at the CEA, the team should make efforts in teaching and other sort of training programs in order to attract young scientists and perpetuate excellence in the field. During the evaluation period 41 per reviewed publications and one patent have been produced. Among them, there are only 10 publications in which a team member is either first or last contributing author. A significant amount of papers concern the study and valorization of the artificial mini-protein (mini-CD4) designed using the grafting approach. One third of the scientific production (theoretical physical chemistry) is related to the development of POLARIS(MD), a new generation force-field incorporating an advanced physical model that takes explicitly polarization into account for application in bio-molecular simulations and chemical applications. About half of the 40 papers published during the period are not related to the PI's activity but signed by one member of the team, Dr Loïc Martin that recently joined it.

Assessment of the unit's academic reputation and appeal

There are 3 permanent scientists in 2 ANR Committees and a participation to 3 EU projects. The team is a member of LERMIT LabEx, but its attractivity is difficult to assess, if any. Strong weakness in the team's visibility with a single member (not the PI) being invited to national and international congresses.

Several local and international grants are of unknown amounts.

Assessment of the unit's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment POLARIS(MD) is developed in collaboration with INTEL corporation for optimization of the performance of the code. STAMPS and POLARIS(MD) are protected by copyrights via a deposit at the French association for software protection (APP).

Assessment of the unit's involvement in training through research

The team belongs to the École Doctorale 'Innovation Thérapeutique' and has hosted 6 post-docs but a single PhD and a single Master student. No teaching activities are reported.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The project deals with the design of artificial protein ligands by grafting functional residues on (mini-)protein scaffolds. These scaffolds are identified using the STAMPS software developed in the MIM team. The objective of the project is the design of artificial mini-proteins for therapeutic and diagnostic applications. The strategy in based on the grafting of functional motifs of residue on mini-protein scaffolds. The currently developed applications concern important human-health topics like blood-brain barrier crossing, LDL regulation for cholesterol control and tumour targeting. This work lie in the general context of "biologics" with the aim of designing protein ligands as alternative to antibodies for therapeutic or diagnostic applications, a domain of intense activity during the last decade. One key asset of the protein binder design method developed in the MIM team is the complete mastery of the IP. The MIM team has an important contribution to the transversal project of SIMOPRO for designing mini-proteins for therapeutic and diagnostic applications. Indeed, one strategic orientation of the section relies on the in silico design of the first generation artificial mini-protein binders using the method and the bioinformatics tools developed in the MIM team.

Conclusion

 Strengths and opportunities:

Past experience has led to a a single proof of concept that should be extended.

Existence of a collaborational network (Labex and international Network).

 Weaknesses and threats:

Missing strategy explains the relatively low scientific output. Biological aims and perspectives are missing.

Strong dependence on collaborations outside of the lab.

Teaching students are missing.

No benchmark of developed software with state-of the art approaches to estimate its true value.

 Recommendations:

Computational biology could be transferred to a research platform without affecting SIMOPRO's project. The team investigates the prediction of immunogenicity in humans with the perspective of developing new vaccines, new diagnosis tools and safe therapeutic proteins. They produced on this topic 40 articles from Jan 2008 to Jun 2013 in good IF journals and filed 4 patents. They characterized the CD4 T cell epitopes of LAGE and Survivin tumor antigens, depicted the CD8 and CD4 T cell responses to the tumor antigen Midkine and showed that the immunogenicity of therapeutic antibodies and erythropoietin can be predicted by quantifying TCR repertoire.

Assessment of the unit's academic reputation and appeal

The team is member of LabEx LERMIT and LabEx VRI, it is involved in three international programs supported by NIH, IMI and FP7, and three national collaborative projects supported by ANR (one as coordinator) and NRBC funding.

Assessment of the unit's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment

The team was recently granted by the NIH for 4 years to run T cell epitope mapping and from IMI (ABIRISK) to delineate immunogenicity of therapeutic proteins.

The team created a commercial service in collaboration with PROTEUS and licenced a patent to INDICIA.

They licenced 3 patents to the VAXEAL to develop therapeutic vaccines against cancer and chronic viruses.

They are part of CELLESTIM (sponsored by ANR) to improve the methods of T cell investigation.

Assessment of the unit's involvement in training through research

One PhD student, teaches 9h/year in Master 2 at AgroParistech.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The project is to evaluate the affinity of peptides for HLA class II molecules and the number of specific CD4 T lymphocytes among normal donors PBMC. They have been applied to vaccine candidates and therapeutic proteins. The project is sound and of very good quality, although it might have been more ambitious.

Conclusion

 Strengths and opportunities:

The group has a good production rate, appropriate equipments and in house technologies that ensure competitiveness.

Past experience has led to a proof of concept.

Collaborative network (Labex and international Network). Continuation of former strategy and projects.

 Recommendations:

The team should enlarge its range of technologies to warrant publication is highest journals in the field.

The LabEx environment will be useful to acquire expertise in clinical issues linked to the topic. The team explores the development of therapeutics from bacterial and plant toxins. They also manage the biology projects of the Joint ministerial program of R&D against CBRNe threats (encompassing 30 research teams from 15 academic entities).

They identified protective inhibitors of ricin, Shigatoxins and other pathogens. They produced an inhibitor of HB-EGF, which causes kidney destruction in glomerulonephritis, and they characterized the successive steps through which the diphtheria toxin and the botulinum neurotoxin interact with a membrane to initiate their lethal membrane translocation.

They produced 18 (11+7) publications in good to very high IF including 1 in Cell , NAR and JACS. In summary, an excellent production for 6 ETP.

Assessment of the unit's academic reputation and appeal

The team, which is a member of LERMIT LabEx, manages the biology projects of the Joint ministerial program of R&D against CBRNe threats, representing 20 research projects involving 30 research teams in 15 academic entities.

Team members were invited speakers in 4 national, 9 international conferences, 13 seminars, 2 round tables; Yearly organization of Bio CBRN Scientific Day of Joint ministerial program of R&D against CBRN risks.

The PI has been awarded Knight in the Order of the Academic Palms.

Assessment of the unit's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment

The team has a total of 6 patent applications and one contract with the small pharma Antabio to develop antiricin drug.

The team is a member of the Labex LERMIT and obtained grants from DGA, ANR, 1 UCB Pharma, 1 CEA Life Sciences Division, 1 Irtelis PhD program, 5 yearly Joint ministerial R&D program against CBRNE risks.

The team has several membership: member of the evaluation committee of the French National Research Agency call "Astrid" in 2012 and 2013; member of the Biotox-Piratox Scientific Committee since 2009; member of the Scientific Prospective Bio Comittee of the High Commissioner on Nuclear Energy (2007)(2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012).

There are collaborations in France, UE and USA.

Assessment of the unit's involvement in training through research

Member of the boards of the CBRN Master at Ecole du Val de Grace -UPMC and the TMMCE Master at the National Museum of Natural History. Organization of 3 teaching units of 9 ECTS.

3 PhD thesis have been defended during the evaluation period.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

An excellent strategy focussed on 2 themes:

1) characterize the protection mechanisms against Ebola, rabies, dengue viruses and Leishmania (in collaborations). Run new screens against toxins acting on small G proteins and cell signaling inducing innate and adaptive immunity.

2) study the therapeutic effect of the HB-EGF inhibitor against RPGN.

Conclusion  Strengths and opportunities:

-Excellent scientific project; -Excellent production; -Outstanding socioeconomical significance of the research; -Excellent collaborational network; -A wise strategy of continuation of former projects.

 Weaknesses and threats:

None, expect the low number of sponsor origins. This group has established itself at the front line of current research in the field of animal toxinology and is a leader in the study of novel peptide/protein toxins that bind to ion channels and to receptors, with particular attention to the G protein coupled receptors.

The group has characterized novel toxins that act on specific muscarinic receptors, and other receptors of this class, and, using protein engineering, is trying to improve and extend the binding to other receptor isoforms to obtain novel therapeutics and novel tools for research.

The group has identified a vasopressin 2 receptor binding toxins that it is under evaluation for treatment of the polycystic kidney disease. Another potentially important discovery is the fact that toxins may recognize dimeric forms of G protein coupled receptor. This may lead to new exploration in this still debated issue in the field.

As a whole, the group is highly productive in terms of scientific publications (36 publications out of which 19 as PI, in toxinology and pharmacology journals + 4 book chapters), particularly if one considers its small size.

Assessment of the unit's academic reputation and appeal

The group leader is highly regarded as an expert by animal toxinologists. He is in addition president of the French toxinology society and has been invited as speaker in the most important symposia in animal toxins (Leuven 2008, Recife 2009, Zermatt 2011, Hawai 2012, Oxford 2012, Rio de Janeiro 2013). Several team members are regularly invited in French and foreign laboratories to present their work and to establish collaborations.

The team is member of the LabEx LERMIT and is coordinator of one European network dedicated to venomics. It is also member of a second European network (Conco) aiming at discovering novel cone toxins with potential therapeutic properties.

An external group (three CNRS researchers and one emeritus director) from the CNRS campus in Gif/Yvette will join the team in 2014 to strengthen toxinology studies, especially in the peripheral and central nervous system, with emphasis on a group of neurotoxins which contaminate marine invertebrates and are therefore of paramount importance for France.

Assessment of the unit's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment This is a quite performant team in its area. It is/was associated or coordinating 5 ANR grants in association with SMEs.

Following the discovery of new snake toxins, the group has been involved in a spin-off company: the Venome-Tech start-up.

The group has been involved in NRBCe (nuclear, radiological, biological and chemical threats) programs for its expertise in Microplate detection of toxin-receptor interactions.

Assessment of the unit's involvement in training through research

Members of the team have good records in this domain: they are strongly involved in teaching in Paris-Sud 11 University, the University Pierre et Marie Curie in Paris, and in the National Museum of Natural History (MNHN). Habilitated researchers have supervised 3 PhD and 6 Master students.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The prospective activities and aims are a logical continuation of the previous work and are likely to provide very important results. One major event for the near future is the arrival of a group headed by one of the best electrophysiologist of the neuro-muscular system, which will potentiate the collaborative effort on the study of marine neurotoxins. This is a major problem for public health care and marine industry, an issue of paramount importance for France.

Conclusion

 Strengths and opportunities:

The group is a recognized expert of venom toxins purification, identification and engineering, as well as recognized for its capacity to study and characterize ligand-receptor interactions.

Its capacity to work on mini proteins design perfectly matches with the strategic orientations of the unit in the future.

 Weaknesses and threats:

Competitivity currently requires to more deeply characterize the new pharmacological systems.

The group limits its explorations to the molecular and cellular levels. Animal models are nowadays important to provide high impact results, especially to confirm toxin specificities in complex systems.

 Recommendations:

The group has published a respectable number of papers, sometimes at the expense of quality/impact. Less numerous articles with impact beyond the specific domain of toxinology would help improving the visibility of the research carried out by the group.

It is advisable that the group leader puts some effort in hiring a talented post-doc to expand the study on the biological activity of the toxins using different cell types and tissues. This should allow the group to report their activity in higher impact journal to further the scientific status of the group. This group has identified and characterized an enzyme, and then a family of enzymes, that catalyse the formation of cyclic dipeptides, based on an original mechanism of action using aminoacyl-tRNAs but no template RNA. Sequence comparison indicates that this is a novel class of bacterial enzymes: the cyclodipeptide synthases, some of which are produced by pathogenic bacteria. The role of cyclic peptides has not been clarified yet, and this is one of the prospected activity, but the group hints that they could be developed as novel antibiotics, though it is not clear how this could be achieved. These findings have been published in high impact journals. The group has also performed a high quality characterization of one cytochrome P450 enzyme from Mycobacterium tubercolosisis.

The scientific production is of very high quality. The 15 published articles appeared in high impact journals such as NAR, PNAS, Nat Chem Biol, JBC, Chem Biol, Nat prod rep.

Assessment of the unit's academic reputation and appeal

The group is member of the LabEx LERMIT and its leader serves on its board.

Team representatives have been invited as speaker in several important meetings, although limited to national congresses.

Assessment of the unit's interaction with the social, economic and cultural environment

The work has great potential for future developments in synthetic biology design of new metabolite factories, with the help of the two, and probably still to discover, families of amino acid metabolizing enzymes.

Assessment of the unit's involvement in training through research

The group leader is teaching biomolecular engineering at the Master "Biology and Health" at the University of Paris Sud 11. She has trained two Ph.D. students who have obtained their degree.

Assessment of the strategy and the five-year plan

The prospective activity is a logical continuation of previous research and it is proposed to determine the whole range of cyclic dipeptides that are formed by different cyclo-dipeptide synthases and to perform various biological screenings to determine their possible biological activities. This is a labour intensive approach that may provide interesting results and applications. Applications in the field of synthetic biology are considered as a possibility to generate new dipeptide motifs with further modifications by means of combining dipeptide synthases with cytochromes of different origins.

Conclusion

 Strengths and opportunities:

The identification of a family of widely distributed, but still poorly investigated, enzymes that catalyse the synthesis of original molecules of presently almost unknown functions, is an original field that deserves investigation for potential future therapies controlling bacterial growth and applications in the field of bioengineering.

The size of the family of enzymes holds promises and many totally unexplored chemical reactions might be exploited to increase chemical diversity in biotechnology applications for drug discovery.

 Weaknesses and threats:

The activity of the group does not appear to be exquisitely integrated in the laboratory strategy. As such, the necessity to elaborate a group strategy that matches laboratory future scientific policy is a concern that the group leader should not underestimate. Nonetheless, the objective to extend the diketopiperazine repertoire through molecular evolution of CDPSs will expand the engineering technologies present in SIMOPRO.

The group is poorly visible at the international level as manifested by the almost absence of international conferences attendance and presentation of the work.

 Recommendations:

Although carrying a research that can be qualified as very original with expected important basic and applied developments in the future, the group should consider its closer integration in the laboratory as a major issue to sustain and improve its productivity.

The team leader should put efforts on creation of a European and wider network of collaborations to enlarge the range of research funding, especially in basic research. Je remercie tout d'abord l'ensemble du comité AERES pour le temps accordé à l'évaluation de notre unité et l'excellent travail réalisé. Les avis positifs sur l'unité, les groupes, mais aussi les critiques adressées sont des éléments extrêmement importants pour améliorer la qualité des recherches réalisées dans nos unités.

La recommandation faite par le comité de veiller à recentrer les activités de cette unité sur sa thématique de base « l'ingénierie Moléculaire des Protéines, est tout a fait logique. Cette recommandation se justifie d'autant que les exemples d'interpénétration dans cette thématique entre les différents projets développés au sein du SIMOPRO ont été présentés et appréciés par le comité.

A cet égard, il nous semble important de rappeler que l'équipe du Dr Cuniasse, qui a fait l'objet d'un jugement assez sévère, apporte une contribution importante aux projets transversaux du SIMOPRO. Le travail théorique sur la recherche de plates-formes fonctionnalisables pour leur conférer de nouvelles fonctions diagnostiques ou bien thérapeutiques est centrale dans la stratégie du SIMOPRO. Deux raisons à cela, d'une part les moyens de calcul dans les années à venir vont exploser et d'autre part les groupes ayant des logiciels propriétaires, avec des codes adaptés pour tirer le meilleur parti de ces nouvelles puissances de calcul, auront des avantages stratégiques évidents. Le développement des programmes STAMPs et POLARIS répondent exactement à ces opportunités et se combinent par ailleurs avec l'implication du CEA sur le calcul intensif. L'activité du groupe du Dr Cuniasse est un atout indéniable pour l'avenir de l'unité.

N3:

  Permanent professors and similar positions N2: Permanent researchers from Institutions and similar positions 24 22 Other permanent staff (without research duties) N4: Other professors (Emeritus Professor, on-contract Professor, etc.) spent at least 12 months in the unit 19 Number of Research Supervisor Qualifications (HDR) taken 13 Qualified research supervisors (with an HDR) or similar positions 11 2  Assessment of the unit Strengths and opportunities related to the context

N3:

  Permanent professors and similar positions N2: Permanent EPST or EPIC researchers and similar positions 5 5 Other permanent staff (without research duties) N4: Other professors (PREM, ECC, etc.) N5: Other EPST or EPIC researchers (DREM, Postdoctoral students, visitors

4 N3:

 4 Permanent professors and similar positions N2: Permanent EPST or EPIC researchers and similar positions 4 Other permanent staff (without research duties) N4: Other professors (PREM, ECC, etc.) N5: Other EPST or EPIC researchers (DREM, Postdoctoral students, visitors

2 N3:

 2 Permanent professors and similar positions N2: Permanent EPST or EPIC researchers and similar positions 2 Other permanent staff (without research duties) N4: Other professors (PREM, ECC, etc.) N5: Other EPST or EPIC researchers (DREM, Postdoctoral students, visitors

3 N3:

 3 Permanent professors and similar positions N2: Permanent EPST or EPIC researchers and similar positions 3 Other permanent staff (without research duties) N4: Other professors (PREM, ECC, etc.) N5: Other EPST or EPIC researchers (DREM, Postdoctoral students, visitorsAssessment of scientific quality and outputs

7 N3:

 7 Permanent professors and similar positions N2: Permanent EPST or EPIC researchers and similar positions 4 Other permanent staff (without research duties) N4: Other professors (PREM, ECC, etc.) N5: Other EPST or EPIC researchers (DREM, Postdoctoral students, visitors

4 N3:

 4 Permanent professors and similar positions N2: Permanent EPST or EPIC researchers and similar positions 4 Other permanent staff (without research duties) N4: Other professors (PREM, ECC, etc.) N5: Other EPST or EPIC researchers (DREM, Postdoctoral students, visitors

  members, AERES scientific delegate, representatives of Institutions and unit members 14:40 Scientific Presentation Team 6 -Ms Muriel GONDRY Attending: Committee members, AERES scientific delegate, representatives of Institutions and unit member 15:20 in parallel the committee splits into three groups Meeting with researchers Meeting with technicians Meeting doctoral students and post doctoral fellows Attending: Committee members, AERES scientific delegate, without the leaders, representative of institution, without the direction of the unit and without team members, AERES scientific delegate, representatives of CEA (Mr Gilles BLOCH and Mr Jean-Marc GROGNET) and INSERM (Ms Marie-Josèphe LEROY-ZAMIA)Specific points to be mentionedThe director of the Doctoral School was not present during the visit. The rattachment of the unit to this ED was during the last year.

6

  Supervising bodies' general comments Saclay, le 12 Mars 2014 Nom de l'unité : Service d'Ingénierie Moléculaire des Protéines Acronyme : SIMOPRO Nom du directeur pour le contrat en cours : Dive Vincent Nom du directeur pour le contrat à venir : Dive Vincent Référence AERES: E2015-EV-0912281K-S2PUR150008212-006634-RT S2PUR150008212 -SIMOPRO -Service d'Ingénierie Moléculaire des Protéines -0912281K A l'attention des membres du Comité d'évaluation AERES:

L

  'axe thérapeutique choisi par le SIMOPRO est une activité à haut risque et par nature, une activité à fort taux d'attrition. Le succès des anticorps thérapeutiques résulte d'une très longue période de recherche. C'est un pari sur l'avenir, mais nous pensons que demain, des protéines optimisées par l'activité humaine prendront une place importante dans l'arsenal thérapeutique. Néanmoins, en accord avec le rapport du comité AERES, de tels objectifs ne pourront être atteints que si le SIMOPRO veille à ces objectifs premiers, renforce son potentiel humain, et développe les partenariats sur le plan National et International indispensables pour réaliser cette ambition. Dr Vincent Dive Service d'Ingénierie Moléculaire des Protéines