(Yicai Global) July 27 -- The former Institut Pasteur of Shanghai has changed its name and is searching for a new director after the French biomedical research giant ended its partnership with the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

The institute in the eastern city is now called the Shanghai Institute of Immunity and Infection, Chinese Academy of Sciences, according to a new plaque installed yesterday. A new director may be picked from existing employees, an insider said to Yicai Global. The position has been vacant since April last year.

The Institut Pasteur, a Paris-headquartered research body of illnesses including emerging infectious and neurogenerative diseases, terminated the partnership in December.

The Shanghai facility was established in October 2004 by the two partners to conduct basic research on infectious diseases to advance public health. But finally, they went their separate ways. "Unfortunately, the two sides disagree on some matters of principle, so they had to terminate the cooperation," a former researcher at the institute told Yicai Global.

Some staff have left the institute since the cooperation ended, Yicai Global learned. Most of those are French researchers, including arbovirus expert Dimitri Lavillette and monkeypox expert Nicolas Berthet.

Editor: Emmi Laine