As it did in 2009 and 2011, the Corporate & Investment Banking area has decided to dedicate to medical research the budget it used to allocate to more than 2,000 corporate gifts, a policy the bank follows in twenty countries around the world.

According to Dr. Jesús Prieto, director of the center's Gene Therapy and Hepatology area , "when a pathogenic virus invades an organism, its cells are capable of recognizing the viral genome and producing molecules with antiviral and immunostimulatory effects such as interferon. However, some viruses such as hepatitis C deactivate the cells' alarm mechanisms and block the production of interferon, which favors the persistence of the virus and the chronification of the disease".

The laboratory of Dr. Eliane Meurs of high school Pasteur de Paris has identified a cellular protein activated by the hepatitis C virus that controls interferon production and that average these inhibitory functions. "Now, with the financial aid offered by BNP Paribasand as a continuation of the project started four years ago, we are now going to develop inhibitory peptides that could interfere with this process and restore interferon synthesis," explains Dr. Prieto.