Behazine Combadiere MS, PhD

Behazine Combadiere is the Global Head of Novel Vaccine early-stage immunology at Sanofi Vaccine R&D. She obtained her PhD in Immunology in 1993 (Paris, France) on the regulation of HIV-specific CD8 responses. She was a post-doctoral fellow from 1993 to 1997 in the laboratory of Immunology (NIAID, NIH, Bethesda, USA) with expertise in T cell immunity. She joined the French National Institutes of Health (CNRS and Inserm) from 1998 to 2022 as head Laboratory on skin, immunity, and vaccination. She was the co-director of the Center for Immunology and Microbial Infection (Inserm unit, Cimi-Paris) and the co-director of International Vaccinology courses at the Institute Pasteur of Paris.

Behazine headed the European project on “HIV Vaccination” from 2010 to 2016 gathering 14 international institutes worldwide, and leader in the European project H2020 (EAVI2020 consortium-2017-2022) for the development of candidate HIV vaccines from early-stage to phase I clinical studies. She has a large expertise in Vaccinology and immune memory to infectious diseases (viral diseases including smallpox, HIV, Influenza, Sars-CoV-2). She pioneers skin immunization with the development of Transcutaneous (needle-free method) using hair follicle targeting method which has been successful in several clinical studies. She has received several awards including the Women in “Science and Innovation” of ELLES – DE – FRANCE in 2020 and Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Mérite in 2022.