What INSERM does

INSERM (Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale) is France's only public research institute dedicated entirely to human health, established in 1964 and headquartered in Paris. Operating under the joint authority of the French Ministry of Higher Education and Research and the Ministry of Health, it employs 10,000+ staff and conducts fundamental and clinical research across multiple disciplines including immunology, infectious diseases, neurology, oncology, cardiovascular health, reproductive health, and environmental health. Its research infrastructure spans specialized laboratories led by First-Class Research Directors (e.g., Jerome Galon, Marc Poirot, Serge Picaud, Aurelie Goyenvalle, Jean Fournie) and produces advanced methodological outputs such as deep mutational scanning maps of the STING protein, tanycyte-mediated tau clearance studies for Alzheimer's disease, controlled intervention studies on endocrine-disrupting chemicals, and maternal-exposure mouse-model work on food emulsifiers.

Its technical portfolio is built around in-house research capabilities rather than commercial products. Notable proprietary research assets include comprehensive protein variant-function maps, novel mechanistic discoveries linking tanycytes to brain protein clearance, and quantified intervention outcomes (e.g., a 39% decrease in urinary bisphenol A concentrations after reducing cosmetic product use). Findings are disseminated primarily through peer-reviewed publications in high-impact journals such as Nature, Cell Press Blue, European Heart Journal, and Environment International, alongside participation in international scientific conferences and institutional collaborations.

INSERM operates as an établissement public à caractère scientifique et technologique and does not generate commercial revenue; it is funded through French government research budgets and grants. Its operating model is collaborative rather than transactional: partnerships span the World Health Organization, Imperial College London, Kyoto University, CNRS, Institut Pasteur, Inria, DFKI, CHU de Nantes, and French biotech firms such as Sensorion. In February 2026, INSERM became an institutional partner in Doctolib's €20 million AI research laboratory to develop clinical decision-support tools, signaling a step toward applied AI in clinical workflows alongside its core academic research mandate.

Name

INSERM

Legal name

Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale

Website

https://inserm.fr

Company type

Private

Founded year

1964

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

5,001–10,000 employees

Short description

INSERM is France's national public research institute dedicated to human health, employing 10,000+ scientists across immunology, oncology, neuroscience, cardiovascular, and environmental health to advance disease understanding and clinical applications.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Biomedical and Health Research

NAICS

Scientific Research and Development Services (5417), Research and Development in Biotechnology (except Nanobiotechnology) (541714)

SIC

Services-Commercial Physical & Biological Research (8731)

akta.pro primary industry

Biomedical Sciences & Medical Research Institutes (University-Based) (EDAHAGAI)

akta.pro secondary industry

Global Health Institutes & Programs (EDAHAGAM)

Keywords

• Biomedical research
• Medical research institute
• Clinical research
• Public health research
• Translational medicine

Headquarters

HQ city

Paris

HQ country

France

HQ region

Europe

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations, Infrastructure

Distribution channels2 records

Marketing channels2 records

Core offering

INSERM (Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale) is France's national public research institute entirely dedicated to human health. It conducts fundamental, clinical, and translational biomedical research across immunology, infectious diseases, neurology, oncology, cardiovascular health, reproductive health, and environmental health, and partners with universities, hospitals, and international research bodies to advance disease understanding, diagnostics, and therapeutic development.

Product overview

INSERM (Institut national de la santé et de la recherche médicale) is France's national research institute dedicated to human health and medical research. Rather than offering commercial products, INSERM conducts scientific research across multiple domains including immunology, oncology, neuroscience, cardiovascular health, reproductive health, and environmental health impacts. The institute collaborates with universities, hospitals (including CHU de Nantes), and research partners (Inria, CNRS, DFKI) on clinical studies and AI-powered healthcare initiatives. Research areas documented in available sources include STING protein mapping for immunology and cancer applications, gene therapy development, Ebola vaccine acceleration, fertility and contraception research, endocrine disruptor exposure studies, food emulsifier health effects, Alzheimer's disease mechanisms involving tanycytes and tau proteins, and PTEN tumor suppressor research.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Quantifiable outcome

• 39% decrease in bisphenol A (BPA) urinary concentrations after reducing cosmetic product use for 5 days
• +4 more outcomes

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core and flagship.

• CHU de NantescoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 February 2026INSERM is a key institutional partner in Doctolib's 20 million euro AI research laboratory initiative. The collaboration brings together CHU de Nantes, Inserm, Inria, and Germany's DFKI research institute to develop AI-powered clinical decision-support tools for physicians and patient health assistants.
• InriacoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 February 2026INSERM and Inria are institutional partners in Doctolib's AI research laboratory, contributing research expertise to develop AI-powered clinical decision-support tools trained on validated medical knowledge rather than general web data.
• DFKI (German Research Center for Artificial Intelligence)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 February 2026German AI research institute collaborating with INSERM and French institutions in Doctolib's AI research laboratory to develop clinical decision-support tools for physicians and patient health assistants.
• University of Grenoble AlpescoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerINSERM researchers collaborated with University of Grenoble Alpes on a study published in Environment International examining how reducing cosmetic and skincare product use leads to decreased urinary concentrations of endocrine-disrupting chemicals.
• CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerINSERM partnered with CNRS alongside University of Grenoble Alpes on research showing significant decreases in bisphenol A, methylparaben, and phthalate concentrations after reducing cosmetic product use.
• Institut PasteurcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerINSERM collaborated with Institut Pasteur on research examining how maternal consumption of food emulsifiers during pregnancy and breastfeeding affects offspring gut microbiome and immune response, potentially increasing risk of inflammatory bowel conditions and obesity.
• World Health Organization (WHO)flagshipStrategic or Co-development PartnerINSERM researchers actively monitoring and researching the Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo alongside WHO and Imperial College London, contributing to international outbreak response efforts.
• Imperial College LondoncoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerINSERM researchers collaborating with Imperial College London researchers to actively monitor the Bundibugyo Ebola outbreak and contribute to understanding the strain with no proven vaccine or treatment.
• Kyoto UniversitycoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerINSERM collaborated with Kyoto University to discover that tanycytes, specialized brain cells, act as a molecular exit ramp clearing tau protein from cerebrospinal fluid into the bloodstream, providing potential new therapeutic targets for Alzheimer's disease.

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Direct peers

• Institut Pasteur: France's other flagship life-sciences research institute and INSERM's most direct national peer. Both are French public research bodies with overlapping focus on infectious disease, immunology, and biomedical research, and the two organizations actively co-publish and collaborate on microbiome and infectious-disease studies.
• CNRS (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique): France's largest public research organization covering all fields of science. CNRS and INSERM co-fund and co-publish research (e.g., environmental health and endocrine disruptor studies) and share the same government-supervised funding model, making them direct operational peers in the French research ecosystem.
• Karolinska Institutet: Sweden's premier medical university and research institute. Comparable in mission (biomedical research across immunology, neuroscience, oncology, public health) and in operating model as a publicly funded, mission-driven research institution with strong international publication output.
• Medical Research Council (UKRI-MRC): The UK's primary government-funded medical research council, also a direct public-sector peer to INSERM. Funds and conducts biomedical research across similar disease areas and supports a comparable network of research units and investigators.

Broad incumbents

• Max Planck Society (Max-Planck-Gesellschaft): Germany's flagship public research network spanning biomedical and physical sciences. Comparable to INSERM in scale, government funding model, and commitment to fundamental research, though Max Planck is broader in scope including non-medical sciences.
• National Institutes of Health (NIH): The United States' primary public medical research agency and the direct functional counterpart to INSERM cited explicitly in the company's own description ("French counterpart to NIH"). Operates at a significantly larger scale and budget but performs the same core mission of biomedical R&D across all major disease areas.
• Helmholtz Association of German Research Centres: Germany's largest public research organization operating large-scale research centers in health, energy, and earth sciences. Comparable in scale, government backing, and translational research orientation, particularly via centers focused on infection research and oncology.
• Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS): China's national medical research institution, comparable in role as a state-backed medical research powerhouse. Significantly larger in headcount and budget, providing a useful global peer for benchmark on research output and translational scale.
• Wellcome Trust: Large UK-based charitable foundation funding biomedical research globally. Comparable to INSERM in mission (advancing human health via research) and at a comparable scale of grant-making and convening power, though operating through grant-giving rather than in-house labs.
• Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI): US-based biomedical research organization supporting investigator-driven science at universities and its own research campus. Comparable in mission focus (fundamental biomedical research for human health) and in scale of long-horizon funding support, though organized very differently (private non-profit vs. public research institute).

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/inserm
• Facebookfacebook.com/127664467297316
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/inserm

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles6 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds1 record

Investors1 record

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M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about INSERM