[My advice is] to stay honest with what really brought you there. I think sometimes people think that being pragmatic is actually a good thing in science. And yes, you have to be to some degree, but the reality is if you lose perspective on what has made you a scientist, the original true drive and the question that really brought you there, you're going to get lost in translation. My advice is to stay absolutely consistent with what brought you there and sometimes make difficult choices. Sometimes you're going to let go of low-hanging fruits or opportunities because you have to remain honest. Don't waste your time on things that you don't fully believe in. Don't say this is going to be a quick paper. Nothing matters but your passion. That's the one thing you cannot recover. When it's gone, it's gone. So, protect it, protect this little flame, protect your energy because this is what's going to give you the energy to overcome thing and continue. You have to remember what really drives you and only do things that are aligned with that.

Yasmine Belkaid is a renowned scientist whose research focuses on the relationship between microbes and the immune system. She is the President as well as the head of the Metaorganism laboratory at the Institut Pasteur.

Belkaid earned her Master’s degree in biochemistry from the University of Science and Technology Houari Boumediene in Algiers, and a Master of Advanced Studies (DEA) from Paris-Sud University. In 1996, she earned her PhD in immunology from the Institut Pasteur, where she studied innate immune responses to leishmania infection. Belkaid then moved to the United States for a postdoctoral fellowship in intracellular parasite biology at NIAID’s Laboratory of Parasitic Diseases (NIH).

Belkaid has received numerous awards including the Robert Koch Prize, the Lurie Prize in Biomedical Sciences, the Sanofi-Institut Pasteur Prize, and the AAI Excellence in Mentoring Award. She also serves on the committees of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, the National Academy of Sciences, the Microbiome Technical Advisory Group at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the NIH Anti-Racism Steering Committee, the American Society of Microbiology, and the Genentech Scientific Resource Board.