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Covid-19: the Air Liquide Foundation at work

Covid-19 presents new challenges for respiratory disease research and at the same time affects many communities around the world. In response, the Foundation is carrying out an exceptional action in favour of scientific research and social projects related to this pandemic.

The Foundation’s objectives

In response to the Covid-19 crisis, the Air Liquide Foundation contacted its research organizations and partner associations in March 2020 to offer them emergency aid. The Foundation's objectives in the face of this crisis are twofold:

supporting the beneficiaries most affected by Covid-19,
better understanding the action of the virus in the lungs and improving the management of patients with respiratory impairment.

The Air Liquide Foundation team

Bruno Leprince-Ringuet

General Manager

Natacha Brunet

Philanthropy coordinator

Geneviève Capbern-Gasqueton

Philanthropy coordinator

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Fondation Air Liquide
75 Quai d'Orsay
75007 PARIS
FRANCE

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Research projects

As part of the emergency response, the Board of the Air Liquide Foundation is supporting the research teams at La Pitié Salpêtrière Hospital in Paris, the International Center for Infectiology Research in Lyon, the Grenoble Alpes University Hospital Center and Grenoble Alpes University , the Institut Pasteur, the Vall d'Hebron Hospital in Barcelona as well as the University of Liège.

The work of these research teams particularly aims to:

improve the understanding and diagnosis, in particular by identifying biomarkers predictive of disease progression,
carry out a quantitative assessment of human and animal exposure via inhaled air and determine the risks and means of prevention,
improve ventilatory monitoring in the patient's bed and thus facilitate the work of caregivers,
identify future innovative antiviral therapeutic approaches.

The Foundation is also studying other projects from European research organizations working on respiratory treatments of Covid-19 and is committed to responding to them as soon as possible.

Projects for the benefit of the most vulnerable

The Project Selection Committee has granted aid to partner associations whose beneficiaries are particularly fragile. This grant makes it possible:

to support shelters for dependent persons in Italy, Spain, France and India and a medical center in the United States,
to support families from the most excluded communities and street youth (food, hygiene and medical products...) in Morocco, Senegal, Togo, India (Delhi, Noida, Chennai) and the Philippines (Metro Manila & Cebu),
to break the isolation of the homeless and isolated people in France,
to carry out awareness campaigns in underprivileged or rural communities on Covid-19 and on basic protective measures in India and Togo.

For more information, please contact us: contact.fondation@airliquide.com.

Testimonial

“At these times when we all have to give the best of ourselves, I had the great pleasure of being asked to serve the Air Liquide Foundation once again, after more than 20 years in the Air Liquide Group.”

Dr Marc Lemaire, Vice-President "Healthcare Program", Air Liquide Santé International (retired)

At these times when we all have to give the best of ourselves, I had the great pleasure of being asked to serve the Air Liquide Foundation once again, after more than 20 years in the Air Liquide Group. It was important for the Foundation to be able to show, in these times of necessary mutual aid and health emergencies, its ability to adapt its internal processes in order to be able to respond to this crisis and support medical research in Europe, particularly through the following two original projects.

The 1st project, led by Prof. Jean-Jacques ROUBY (Pitié Salpêtrière Hospital), a resuscitator of international reputation, aims to avoid spreading infection while protecting the nursing staff, by monitoring lung imaging in the beds of confined patients, via miniaturized ultrasound probes connected to a computer screen, tablet or android. This study of the evolution of the lung image is essential in monitoring the infection, and could make it possible to predict the effectiveness of mechanical ventilation, and thus help to better treat patients.

Thanks to this study, these probes, already on the market or about to be, easy to clean and disinfect and easily transportable, could see their use extended to areas with poor therapeutic resources.

The 2nd project, from the world-renowned VirPath team at the International Center for Infectiology Research in Lyon, seeks to better understand viral production (primary infection), its impact on cell integrity, and to move towards new therapeutic avenues. Such a study would help to prove (or not) the efficacy of certain "old" drugs used for other therapeutic indications. The most innovative and exciting possibilities of this project are the identification of prognostic and/or diagnostic biomarkers and also the opening towards future antiviral strategies.

Natalia Pecharromán, Projects Manager, Fundación Gil Gayarre

Despite the current difficulties, Fundación Gil Gayarre remains faithful to its commitment to its 450 beneficiaries with an intellectual disability and their families, and especially to the 69 women and men who have stayed in the foundation's residences in Pozuelo de Alarcón and San Sebastián de los Reyes near Madrid.

The staff of the centres make great efforts to ensure that these people receive all the necessary care and personalized support in complete safety.

The Air Liquide Foundation's support enables Gil Gayarre's professionals to guarantee the beneficiaries good health conditions.

Thank you very much dear friends for your generosity which helps us maintain the quality of life of the mentally deficient people of our foundation!

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