As Marie Curie’s Paris lab faces demolition, stakeholders look for alternatives

After the hustle and bustle of the festive season and the first few days of January, a crucial meeting was held in the early hours of Friday morning, January 5, at France’s Culture Ministry. The same day, just before attending the national tribute to former European Commission president Jacques Delors in the icy courtyard of the Invalides, Culture Minister Rima Abdul Malak met the president of the Institut Curie. (Abdul Malak has since been replaced with Rachida Dati.)

The goal of the meeting was to lower tensions between two competing visions. On one side are the supporters of an ambitious scientific project, driven by the Curie Institute, a cutting-edge research center and hospital specializing in the fight against cancer. On the other, the partisans of the preservation of the Pavillon des Sources (“Pavilion of the Springs”), located in the heart of Paris’ 5^th borough. Despite its modest appearance, this 109-square-meter light-colored brick building on the Rue d’Ulm is part of the prestigious Radium Institute. Built between 1911 and 1914, it is located near the Panthéon and the Ecole Normale Supérieure university. The plan is to demolish it to make way for a five-story, 2,500 m² building housing cutting-edge laboratories promising medical advances.

Work was due to start three days later, on January 8, but that Friday morning, both parties agreed to a brief break. Less than a week later, Abdul Malak addressed her successor in her farewell speech to the ministry: “I know, dear Rachida, that you will look after the fate of Marie Curie’s Pavillon des Sources.” Indeed, the new culture minister had previously spoken out against the project as an opposition councilor on the Paris city council this autumn, before the debate became national news.

Vital green spaces

At the beginning of January, Stéphane Bern, a star TV and radio presenter for history-themed shows, entered the fray, along with several feminist associations. The debate was no longer just about national heritage, but also about preserving the memory of an icon – Curie (1867-1934), the only woman to have won two Nobel Prizes, in physics in 1903 and chemistry in 1911.

On the other side, the focus was on creating an environment conducive to medical innovation. The Institut Curie’s project, costing €12 million, was conceived five years ago. “It is emblematic of the multidisciplinary approach we’re taking, in the spirit of Marie Curie,” explained Thierry Philip, the president of the institute. The idea is to bring together teams of biologists and chemists under one roof: to discover new molecular targets, create chemical compounds that can slow tumor growth, and then assess these treatments in initial patients – following patent filings and startup creations. “If we want 21^st-century therapies to develop in France, we can’t block such projects,” said Fatima Mechta-Grigoriou, head of this new unit. “The best way to represent Marie Curie’s memory is to maintain the scientific excellence of this Institute,” added Raphaël Rodriguez, the program’s lead researcher.

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