INSERM

French national institute of health and medical research, created in 1964 out of the earlier national institute of hygiene and placed under the ministries of research and health, the only French public body devoted entirely to human health research. Runs around three hundred research units and centres, mostly inside universities and hospitals, working on cancer, neuroscience, immunology and infectious disease, genetics, public health and technologies for health, sponsors and manages clinical trials through Inserm Transfert and the ANRS agency for emerging infectious diseases, and licenses its inventions to industry.