The Pasteur Institute has been recognized for world-changing scientific discoveries since it was founded in the 15th arrondissement of Paris in the late 1880s. Named after its founder, pioneering French scientist Louis Pasteur, the institute contributed to the production of tetanus and flu vaccines and pioneered the discovery of the virus that causes AIDS.
In recent years, the Pasteur Institute has made progress in another field: musical art. Some of its scientists formed bands and other activities in which their colleagues and students who studied there participated. The group honed their musical passion and abilities in an on-site studio they called the Music Lab.
On a Friday evening in March, three membranes developed in the lab headlined an event held in the lab's cafeteria. These included Polaris and Billie and the What?! (both blues rock bands) and the a cappella group Les Papillons (“the Butterfly” in English).
The room, decorated with pink, gold and white colored balloons and streamers, was filled with a pleasant purple glow. It was packed with over 100 people as well as a variety of equipment including microphones, speakers, guitars and elaborate drum kits.
The drums were by Germano Cecere, a member of Billie and What?! He is also the head of a laboratory at the Pasteur Institute specializing in epigenetic mechanisms. His mission is to study how organisms “obtain not only DNA but also other materials from our parents.” He spoke in layman's terms.
Mr. Cesere, 44, was born in a small town near Naples, Italy. He started playing drums at the age of nine and aspired to play professionally. During college and graduate school, he played in bands that toured throughout Italy. “I wanted to do music, but my family said music was for fun. “Do something else,” he said.
That “something else” was getting a Ph.D. She studied human biology and genetics at the University of Rome and then did postdoctoral work at Columbia University in New York. He joined the staff of the Pasteur Institute in 2015.
Ms. Cecere had her bronze hair pulled back into a low ponytail. He can talk animatedly for hours about topics that excite him: epigenetics, jazz, Neapolitan food. In 2006, while working on a doctoral course, I started making short films. <경계선>premiered at the Rome Film Festival and won the Best Cinematography Award. award.
Mr. Cecere said the Pasteur Institute attracted many people who could play guitar riffs and easily explain the complexities of biochemistry. Among them was developmental biologist and bass player Pedro Hernández-Cerda, who helped convince the institute's leadership to establish a music institute. (Hernández-Cerda, who has since left the Pasteur Institute, lobbied for the institute with Camille Baussay, a singer and the institute's former personnel lawyer.)
The lab began as a place for employees who dabble in music to gather and improvise. But it wasn't long before employees were forming music groups and performing at department retreats and other work events.
Georg Braune, a member of the Les Papillons a cappella group, described the lab as a kind of refuge. “We have so much equipment,” said Braune, a 22-year-old master’s student studying brain development at the Pasteur Institute. He said, “You can go there and play during the day. We can do whatever we want.”
Cecere said the institute has helped create a stronger sense of community between the institute's directors, like himself, and the students or scientists involved in the temporary program. His band includes two different managers. Gérard Eberl, who studies microenvironment and immunity, plays guitar. Javier Pizarro-Cerda, who studies systems biology of bacterial infections, plays bass. PhD students Ana Choi and Alice Billie Libri provide vocals.
Mr. Libri, a 27-year-old student who is pursuing a Ph.D. In the areas of DNA repair, immunodeficiency and cancer, the Pasteur Institute said it promoted other activities such as theater and painting. “But I think music is the main activity,” she said. “There’s choir, guitar lessons, things like that. really good.”
About halfway through the March event held in a restaurant commemorating the 21st anniversary of the founding of the Institute's Social Committee, someone started handing out glow sticks. The crowd was going crazy for the cover of Billie and What?! Les Papillon members dressed in butterfly wing costumes led the dance circle, performing songs such as Billie Eilish's 'Bad Guy' and Santana's 'Smooth'.
A towering cake made of pizza and donuts was served along with beer and, of course, champagne.
Before Billie and What?! Ms. Billie, who went by the name Billie and inspired the band's name. Libri said music was a way for her to escape when she was “disappointed with science.”
Then she added, “If you get disappointed with music, you can always go back to science.”