The history of St. Petersburg Pasteur Institute goes back to 1908, when the First Serodiagnostic and Bacteriological Laboratory was established in St. Petersburg by scientists Yakov Liberman, Petr Maslakovets, and Georgy Belonovsky. In 1910, the institution already had the status of Bactheriological and Diagnostic Institute, and since 1911 – the St. Petersburg Private Bacteriological and Diagnostic Institute. During the Revolution, the Institute was nationalized and transformed into the Second City Laboratory. On April 4, 1923, the Second City Bacteriological Laboratory was transformed into the Petrograd Bacteriological and Diagnostic Institute. On May 5, 1923, the institution was renamed into the Pasteur Petrograd Bacteriological Institute (in commemoration of the 100th anniversary of Pasteur's birth).

In 1924, the Institute was provided with a two-story building at 12a Mira Street, on the site of which a six-story laboratory building was built in 1984-1986, where the Institute is still located today (14 Mira Street).

Since establishment, the Institute has acquired all the characteristics of a Pasteur-style institution: multidisciplinary expertise in the studied infectious diseases, constant contact with clinical practice, and a comprehensive methodology—namely, the ability to independently address all scientific challenges, from isolating the etiologic agent to creating vaccines and serums. The Institute played an active role in liquidation the epidemiological consequences of World War I and the Civil War. It quickly launched the production of vaccines relevant for the time, organized mass vaccination campaigns against infectious diseases, and implemented a comprehensive system for bacteriological and serological diagnostics at its own facilities and in the city's medical and preventive care facilities.

The Institute became the site of the first vaccine-serum commission in the history of Russian medicine, laying the foundation for the examination, control, and standardization of national means for the specific diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of infectious diseases. In 1929, the Jenner Institute for the Preparation of Smallpox Detritus (Smallpox Vaccination Institute and the Malaria Station were merged with the Institute.

At the late 1920s and early 1930s, the Institute established itself with original ideas and developments. Dr. Oskar-Heinrich Gartokh, the leader of the Institute's microbiological research, was one of the first in world science to propose and substantiate the idea of the heterogeneity of infectious agents within the same nosological forms of disease. In the 1930s, independent scientific schools began to emerge, influenced by the works of Dr. O. Gartokh, Dr. S. Kazarnovskaya, Dr. E. Novgorodskaya, and Dr. G. Besedin. The virological research field, headed by Anatoly Smorodintsev, was fully formed.

Along with developing scientific research, the Institute played a direct role in the formation of the country's sanitary and epidemiological service in the 1930s. Initially, the institution also played a key role in addressing zoonotic infections. An anti-plague station operated on its premises for several years, and in 1933, a department of parasitic typhus was founded, developing into a multidisciplinary unit for the study of natural focal infections. The 1930s and 1940s saw a flourishing of research in the field of immunology.

From the beginning of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945), remaining the city's only scientific and practical institution in the field of epidemiology and microbiology, the Institute became the "anti-epidemic headquarters". During the difficult days of the war and the 900-day siege of Leningrad, the Institute never ceased its work. Alongside their anti-epidemic work, Pasteur's researchers continued their scientific research throughout the war and the siege. Their results were published in special collections of papers by Leningrad doctors transported from the besieged city along the Road of Life across Lake Ladoga.

Since 1963, the Institute has been participating in the implementation of World Health Organization programs in countries of Asia, Africa and Latin America (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Somalia, Nigeria, Congo, Mongolia, India, Burma, Iran, Nepal, Mozambique, Cuba, Bangladesh, Yemen, etc.).

In the 1970s and 1980s, the Institute was a leader in influenza vaccination and initiated and organized a measles revaccination program, ultimately achieving the inclusion of revaccination in the national immunization schedule. Priority scientific research was carried out, leading to the creation of a new field of biotechnology – fine immunochemistry. The Institute was among the country's leaders in the study of infectious disease etiology. Within its walls, the causative agents of "new" viral and bacterial infections were isolated and identified for the first time in the USSR: hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome, campylobacteriosis, and Helicobacter pylori infections.

In 1993, the Institute was accepted into the International Pasteur Network; nowadays, the Network comprises 33 institutes located on five continents in 26 countries. The Institute collaborates with the Institut Pasteur de Paris and other Network institutes on microbiology, epidemiology, virology, and immunology (including infectious disease eradication and elimination programs).

The Institute currently maintains active collaboration with the WHO: Dr. Vladimir Dedkov, Deputy Director for Research, is a WHO expert consultant and a member of the Scientific Advisory Group on the Origins of Emerging Pathogens (SAGO). The Institute operates two WHO-accredited subnational laboratories (for polio diagnosis and for measles and rubella diagnosis). Since 2004, the Institute's intestinal infections laboratory has conducted WHO training courses on global foodborne disease surveillance (WHO GFN).

St. Petersburg Pasteur Institute maintains and develops scientific contacts and joint projects with countries in Europe (France, Belgium, Italy, Serbia), Asia (China, Vietnam, Laos), South America (Venezuela), and Africa (Republic of Guinea, Senegal, Republic of the Congo, Central African Republic), as well as with friendly countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia.

The Institute is home to one of the most active branches of the Russian Scientific and Practical Society of Epidemiologists, Microbiologists and Parasitologists– the branch for St. Petersburg and the Leningrad Region.

Since 2011, the Institute has published the scientific journal "Infection and Immunity", which is included in the list of peer-reviewed journals of the Higher Attestation Commission (HAC). The journal is included in the multidisciplinary bibliographic and abstract databases Scopus and Web of Science, and is currently one of the leading Russian scientific journals on infectious immunology.

The Institute offers postgraduate studies in the following specialties: microbiology, virology, immunology, epidemiology, and infectious diseases.

Currently, St. Petersburg Pasteur Institute conducts fundamental and applied research in the fields of epidemiology, microbiology, and biotechnology to ensure the sanitary and epidemiological well-being of the population of the Russian Federation. The Institute's structure includes 5 departments and 20 scientific laboratories, which include two WHO Subnational Laboratories for poliomyelitis and measles/rubella; reference centers for monitoring typhoid fever and for monitoring yersiniosis; a scientific and methodological center for epidemiological surveillance of viral hepatitis; regional centers for epidemiological surveillance of poliomyelitis, measles/rubella, salmonellosis, rickettsiosis, and the North-West District Center for AIDS Prevention and Control. Overall, the Institute performs the functions of a scientific and methodological center for monitoring infectious disease pathogens in the North-West Federal District.

In addition, the Institute includes a Testing Laboratory Center, a Medical Center, a Publishing House, and a Pilot Industrial Production Facility, which produces a wide range of diagnostic drugs and selective nutrient media for cultivating microorganisms (more than 200 items).

The medical center allows the Institute to quickly implement patient-oriented scientific developments into practical healthcare and conduct expert diagnostic research in the fields of bacteriology, virology, vaccination, and clinical immunology.

Since 2022, the Institute has been participating in the Federal Project "Sanitary Shield - Health Safety (Prevention, Detection, Response)", conducting extraterritorial monitoring of infectious threats, genetic monitoring of pathogen variability, developing rapid tests for 60-minute diagnostics, and creating an electronic catalog of microorganisms and biotoxins.

Since 2019, the Institute has consistently ranked among the country's leading scientific institutions.

The Institute employs 2 academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 1 corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 10 professors, 25 doctors of science, and 59 candidates of science.

The Institute is actively pursuing innovative developments. In the last five years, 102 patents and 21 registration certificates for diagnostic tools have been received.

Since the onset of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the Institute's priority has been studying and combating SARS-CoV-2 and preventing other infectious diseases. A COVID-19 laboratory was quickly established, operating 24/7 during the height of the pandemic. A PCR kit for detecting SARS-CoV-2 coronavirus RNA and an ELISA kit for the quantitative determination of human IgG antibodies to the SARS-CoV-2 N protein were developed. Following the subsequent receipt of a government contract for their production, production capacity for large-scale production of diagnostic test kits was restored.

For developing a program to assess population immunity to the novel coronavirus infection and implementing it in 26 regions of the Russian Federation from 2020 to 2022, a group of scientists from the Institute was awarded the country's top prize in medicine - “Mission”. At the commitment of the Russian Government, this program has been successfully implemented since 2021 in such countries as Belarus, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Armenia.

Essentially, St. Petersburg Pasteur Institute is the leading research institution in the North-West Federal District on issues of epidemiology, microbiology, and immunology.

The Institute maintains close and ongoing collaboration with sanitary and epidemiological services, healthcare authorities, and the Federal Service for Surveillance on Consumer Rights Protection and Human Wellbeing. This creates a solid foundation for the continued systematic development and improvement of St. Petersburg Pasteur Institute.