Dr. Puijalon is a Director of Research at the Institut Pasteur Paris. Trained as a bacterial geneticist, she pioneered higher eukaryote expression in Escherichia coli and Saccharomyces cerevisiae in the late 1970s. Her research interests include vaccines, epidemiology, disease surveillance, and diagnostics. For more than 20 years, Dr. Puijalon has dedicated herself to malaria vaccine development, epidemiology, and biodiversity studies in rural Africa. She has chaired the Immunology of Malaria Committee, and has been a member of the Strategic Scientific Advisory Committee of the UNDP/World Bank/World Health Organization Special program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR).

In addition to her research, Dr. Puijalon sits on the editorial board of Parasite and serves as a reviewer for Infection and Immunity, Molecular and Biochemical Parasitology, Experimental Parasitology, Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene, Parasite Immunology, Gene, The Lancet, and Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. She is also an external reviewer for various international organizations, including TDR and the World Health Organization.

After earning her Bachelor's degree in Varese, Italy, Dr. Puijalon went on to gain extensive training and accreditation from Université Paris VII, including her Doctorat de 3ème cycle in 1975 and a Doctorat d'Etat des Sciences Naturelles in 1980. Among her honors, Dr. Puijalon was awarded the Prix Jacques Monod and the Lauréat de l’Académie Nationale de Médecine, Paris.