Villejuif Campus

Researchers trace the history of the CNRS Villejuif campus units while identifying the site's highlights according to three main periods.
1930-1960: Creation of the Villejuif Cancer Institute, bringing together research laboratories and a hospital in order to bring medical research and clinical applications closer together. Integration of this Institute in the CNRS in 1948 and development of an electronic microscopy laboratory.
1960-1980: Separation of the Institute into two entities, the Cancer and Normal Cell Research Centre and the Cancer Scientific Research Institute. Basic research in immunology begins. In 1968, the two Institutes merge to bring the world of physicians and biologists closer together. A time of great discoveries, like evidencing the role of P53 proteins in cancer development.
1980-2010: Creation of the Gustave Roussy Institute on a new site, the existing hospital being too small. Merger of the laboratories remaining on site within the Life Sciences department whose research focuses on protein biochemistry. Two new stakeholders emerge and join forces with the the CNRS: the ARC to support campus funding and the INSERM in the creation of a CNRS-INSERM federative Institute . Arrival of the Human and Social Sciences (laboratories of ethnology, linguistics, philosophy and sciences and History of religions) on the campus which becomes the 3rd pole in Humanities and Social Sciences in the Parisian area. Creation of a federation of multidisciplinary teams to promote exchanges between researchers and to pool documentary collections. Reflections on the future of the site as a result of a unit relocation plan.