Marseille-Luminy - a European center of excellence in immunology
Marseille is well known for its tangy fish soup, its sunshine and its sometimes violent underworld action. But it is fast becoming a sanctuary of science. Some 10 miles south-east of the city centre, on a craggy limestone hill between the mountains and the sea, aptly called Luminy, a "science and technology park" has over the past 15 years been quietly sprouting between the umbrella pines. Among faculty buildings, biotech firms and an array of science centers is the Centre d'Immunologie de Marseille-Luminy (CIML), one of Europe's top research institutions, and certainly one of France's most successful examples of decentralization.