The Generative Brain
Paris Brain Institute (Institut du Cerveau, ICM), prion disease group at Sorbonne Universite with Inserm and CNRS logo

Paris Brain Institute (Institut du Cerveau, ICM), prion disease group at Sorbonne Universite with Inserm and CNRS

The Paris Brain Institute (Institut du Cerveau, ICM) is a brain research institute founded in 2010 on the Pitie-Salpetriere hospital site in Paris, run with Sorbonne Universite, Inserm and CNRS as parent bodies, and described in a 2026 public job notice as a private foundation of about 650 staff. Its prion work sits in one of 29 teams, ALZHEIMER-PRIONS, co-led by a prion clinician scientist and an Alzheimer researcher. That team leader also coordinates the French national reference centre for unconventional transmissible agents, and team members include the AP-HP clinician of the national CJD reference unit. The group has led the French arm of the doxycycline trial, co-developed a 2016 blood test for variant CJD, built a worm model of E200K disease for drug screening, supplied characterised CJD brain samples to RT-QuIC work, and co-authors the national surveillance analyses. Information only, not medical advice.

Key facts

  • The ICM was founded in 2010 at the Pitie-Salpetriere hospital; Sorbonne Universite is host institution and CNRS and Inserm are the other parent bodies; the research unit codes in team papers are Inserm U1127 and CNRS UMR 7225.
  • Sorbonne Universite lists 29 ICM teams in 2026, one of them titled Alzheimer disease and prion diseases, led jointly by a prion researcher and an Alzheimer researcher.
  • The team page names eight principal investigators across Inserm, CNRS, Sorbonne Universite and AP-HP, including an AP-HP neuropathologist and an AP-HP clinician working on CJD and its epidemiology.
  • The prion team leader coordinates the national reference centre for unconventional transmissible agents and works on pre-mortem diagnosis, characterisation of emerging human prion strains and how strains spread in the brain.
  • Sante publique France lists an Inserm team on human prion diseases at Pitie-Salpetriere as one of three parts of that reference centre, and names Inserm U1127 as the unit that coordinates national CJD surveillance with the agency.
  • The French arm of the phase 2 doxycycline trial in CJD recruited from January 2009 to January 2012; the team lists the 2014 Lancet Neurology trial report among its main papers, with its leader as first author.
  • In 2016, EFS blood service scientists with the ICM team, the AP-HP CJD unit, Lariboisiere and the Edinburgh surveillance unit reported a plasma prion amplification test for variant CJD: in 256 plasma samples including 18 clinical vCJD patients, sensitivity was 100 percent (95 percent CI 81.5 to 100) and diagnostic specificity 100 percent.
  • The same 2016 test found prions in two blood donors 1.3 and 2.6 years before symptoms began.
  • In 2021 the team described a C. elegans worm model carrying human E200K PrP; a screen of 320 approved, brain penetrant drugs found five that reduced E200K PrP aggregation and neuron loss in the worms.
  • That Brain paper lists a "CJD foundation" as its only funder, without country or grant number.
  • Team members co-authored the 25 year French surveillance report (1992 to 2016), whose first affiliation is the Paris Brain Institute with Inserm, CNRS, AP-HP and Sorbonne Universite.
  • A 2023 study from the AP-HP CJD unit, ICM and Inserm validated the MRC prion disease rating scale in France on 173 sporadic CJD cases among 852 notified patients from November 2014 to May 2021.
  • The team leader is listed on the 2025 E219K RT-QuIC substrate paper at Sorbonne Universite and the ICM, and the team supplied MV1, VV2, VV1 and MM2-c brain samples through the reference centre and the national CJD neuropathology network.
  • The ICM auditorium hosted the 10th French prion study day on 19 June 2025, where ICM (Inserm U1127) staff reported three CJD cases found by systematic screening of the Neuro-CEB brain bank network.
  • An Inserm post in the team, vacant from 1 June 2026, covers detecting abnormal PrP in CSF from suspected sporadic CJD patients and developing a method suited to genetic prion disease, with RT-QuIC or PMCA skills preferred.
  • Recent prion papers with the team leader as author include a 2024 GWAS of sporadic CJD duration and onset, a 2025 multiomic CJD risk gene study and a 2025 report of neuropathy as the first sign in two E200K cases.

Timeline

  1. 2009French recruitment into the doxycycline trial opens (to 2012-01).
  2. 2010ICM founded on the Pitie-Salpetriere site.
  3. 2014Doxycycline trial report published in Lancet Neurology, listed as a main team paper.
  4. 2016Plasma test for variant CJD published in Science Translational Medicine and announced by the ICM.
  5. 2021Worm E200K model and drug screen published in Brain; ICM news on 2021-11-17.
  6. 2023MRC prion disease rating scale validation in France published.
  7. 202325 year French prion surveillance report published with ICM as first affiliation.
  8. 202510th French prion study day held at the ICM.
  9. 2025E219K RT-QuIC substrate paper published with ICM supplied CJD samples.
  10. 2026Inserm CSF prion detection engineer post in the team falls vacant.
  11. 2026Sorbonne Universite page updated, listing the Alzheimer and prion team.
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