Dr Ali Amara is Director of Research class 1 at INSERM and head of the " Biology of emerging viruses " team at the Saint-Louis Research Institute in Paris. Dr Amara obtained his PhD in Immunology in 1995 from the University of Bordeaux. In 1996, he joined the Institut Pasteur in Paris for a postdoctoral fellowship in Virology, and was recruited as a research fellow at INSERM in 2000. Dr Amara has published over 76 original scientific articles.
His research aims to identify the host cellular pathways that determine human susceptibility to viral diseases. His main focus is on viruses of public health importance and causing life-threatening infections, such as the AIDS virus, mosquito-borne viruses and respiratory viruses. Using a combination of cutting-edge technologies, his aim is to decipher the biological circuits used by these viruses to complete their infectious cycle, in order to propose new targets for the design of innovative antiviral strategies.
Ali Amara is the winner of the Prix Lacassagne 2022 (nominated by Hugues de Thé, Chair of Cellular and Molecular Oncology).