Prof. Antoine Gessain is a medical virologist who studied in Paris’ hospitals and Universities where he received his MD and PhD. He spent two years as post-Doctoral Visiting Fellow in the LTCB lab of Dr. RC. Gallo at NCI, Bethesda, USA. Then, he got a position at the Institut Pasteur in Prof. G. de Thé, then Prof. L. Montagnier Units (Virology Department).

He is since 2001, Unit Chief; Unit of Epidemiology and Physiopathology of Oncogenic viruses (EPVO), and since 2010 Professor at the Institut Pasteur.

Most of his scientific achievements concern the clinical, epidemiological and physiopathological features, as well as genetic variability, of human retrovirus HTLV-1 and their simian counterparts, STLV-1. He is also recognized for works on the HHV-8 and the associated Kaposi’s sarcoma. More recently, he has developed studies on the emergence of viruses of zoonotic origin in Central Africa including the foamy retroviruses and the monkeypox (Mpox). He participates also actively to teaching in infectious diseases, especially at the Institut Pasteur.

Since 1984, he published around 450 publications including some in the Lancet, NEJM, Nature, Nature Medicine, J. Ex Med, Genome Research, JNCI, Blood, CID, EID, JID,…with more than 20 00 citations and a h index of 69.