The Museum
“A human adventure serving the fight against infectious diseases”
The Dr Mérieux Museum of Biological Sciences is dedicated to biology and the fight against infectious diseases. It tells the story of how women and men have learned about microbes and how to fight against the diseases that these microorganisms can cause, through diagnosis, vaccination and therapies.
This museum tells the story of the Mérieux family, pioneering scientists working in the field of global public health, whose history began in Lyon in 1897 and continued in Marcy l’Etoile in 1917, a small village in the west of Lyon that has now become a major centre in the fight against infectious diseases.
Anchored in today’s world and looking to the future, the museum presents the major global health issues. It aims to raise awareness among all publics, especially young people, so that they can become actors in their own health by better understanding microbes and thus better fight against infectious diseases.
Within its walls, the Dr Mérieux Museum of Biological Sciences invites its visitors to:
Learn the infinitely small, at the heart of biology
Discover the viruses, bacteria and parasites, the microorganisms that surround, inhabit and sometimes attack us.
Learn how infectious diseases are born and spread and how epidemics become pandemics.
The museum shows you the impact of infectious diseases in the world with a worldwide mapping of major viral, bacterial and parasitic pathologies.
Discover an extraordinary human adventure in the service of the health of women and men around the world
Biologists, doctors, veterinarians and pharmacists who, in the tradition of Louis Pasteur, learned to fight and prevent infectious diseases
- Without borders between man and animal by combining both human and veterinary medicine
- Without borders between countries, for a global approach to health
- Through innovation and industrialization to deploy global strategies for the prevention and control of infectious diseases
Meet pioneers who have fought and won great battles against infectious diseases (e.g. meningitis in Brazil, polio, etc.) and opened up new scientific and medical approaches in the fight against infectious diseases, which are now more present than ever with globalization.
OUTSIDE THE WALLS, the Dr Mérieux Museum of Biological Sciences invites you to join tours / visits in Lyon:
A city that is deeply committed to health and whose neighborhoods are full of places that have been important in the history of sciences and have advanced public health.
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Because young audiences are key to preparing for the future
The museum organises specific events and workshops for young people from 4 years old, with their families or with their teachers in the school setting.
To discover, experiment and interact with living beings.
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The Dr Mérieux Museum of Biological Sciences
Is fully in line with current scientific and medical news
working with a scientific council. It proposes temporary exhibitions, events and conferences on the major current public health issues
Our partners
The Museum benefits from the loyal support of industrial, scientific, academic and institutional partners who have accompanied it since its creation, convinced of the need to make the challenges of biology in the fight against infectious diseases widely known.
All of them have placed their trust in the Museum:
- for healthcare industries: bioMérieux, Boehringer Ingelheim, Institut Mérieux, Sanofi
- in the philanthropic field: Fondation Mérieux
- in the field of higher education and research: VetAgro Sup
- the city of Marcy l’Etoile, historic birthplace of the Mérieux adventure and owner of the Museum building.
Depending on its program, the Museum also occasionally calls on cultural partners to organize events, enrich its collections, share skills and thus increase its influence.
