Pierre Buffet

Pierre Buffet is currently Medical Director at the Institut Pasteur, France. He is a Professor and Hospital Practitioner in cellular biology at Université de Paris and in the Paris Public Hospital Network (AP-HP). He previously worked as a physician/scientist in Medellin, Colombia and Rio, Brazil, working on the therapy of leishmaniasis. After a fellowship in Infectious Diseases, he became Head of the Medical Center and Clinical Research Center at Institut Pasteur, developing projects on the role of the spleen in malaria and the treatment of leishmaniasis (2000-2007). He was then involved in clinical trials and surveillance programmes in clinical parasitology as Associate Professor in Parasitology at Pitié Salpêtrière Hospital (2007 – 2015). He has been adviser, consultant, or expert for the WHO, the French Drug Agency (ANSM), several pharmaceutical companies involved in the development of antiparasitic drugs, and the French National Institute for Medical Research (INSERM).

Professor Buffet is member of the board/medical expert for the French National Reference Centers for Malaria and Leishmaniasis, and for the European “LeishMan” network for a better management of patients with leishmaniasis.

He is a strong advocate for the use of safe local therapeutics of cutaneous leishmaniasis, rather than toxic systemic drugs. He has also developed translational projects that have connected findings in research laboratories in parasitology and cell biology with medical applications.

Professor Buffet trained as a physician in Paris (1983-1989) and specialized in dermatology with a focus on cutaneous infections and special interest in tropical diseases (1990-1995). He obtained a PhD in microbial biochemistry at Institut Pasteur in 2000 on the molecular mechanisms of malaria in pregnant women.

He received awards from the French Society of Parasitology, the Fondation Mérieux, and Paris University (Award for Excellence in Research 2012).