Paris

Christian Bréchot, INSERM's new chief. Credit: AFP

Christian Bréchot, a clinical researcher specializing in liver disease and hepatitis, has been named as the new director of INSERM, France's main biomedical research agency.

Bréchot is best known for his work on hepatitis B and C — especially his investigation of the role of viral hepatitis in the development of liver cancer (see Nature 286, 533–535; 1980).

After his appointment, Bréchot said in a newspaper interview that one of his priorities would be to strike the right balance between clinical and basic research at INSERM. He also plans to develop informal research groups within the agency to act as special “strike forces” in important areas of multidisciplinary research. And he says he will rejuvenate INSERM from the bottom up, by supporting talented young researchers.

Bréchot's appointment was announced last week by Roger-Gérard Schwartzenberg, the French research minister. Schwartzenberg says he wants Bréchot to give priority to emerging areas of research such as gene therapy, and to areas of new relevance to public health, such as the study of prion-related diseases.

The research minister also wants to see better coordination between INSERM's 256 research units, and more cooperation with other research sponsors in France.

Bréchot's dual role as a practising clinician, at the Necker Children's Hospital in Paris, and as a researcher — he is director of an INSERM unit at the Pasteur Institute — apparently contributed to his selection by Schwartzenberg. “It is important to have someone who has direct and regular contact with patients,” says the minister.