Asclepios1 is the name of a research project-team o cially launched on November 1st, 2005 at INRIA Sophia-Antipolis, to study the Analysis and Simulation of Biological and Medical Images. This research project-team follows a previous one, called Epidaure, initially dedicated to Medical Imaging and Robotics research. These two project teams were strongly supported by Gilles Kahn, who used to have regular scienti c in- teractions with their members. More generally, Gilles Kahn had a unique vision of the growing importance of the interaction of the Information Technologies and Sciences with the Biological and Medical world. He was one of the originators of the creation of a speci c BIO theme among the main INRIA research directions, which now regroups 16 di fferent research teams including Asclepios, whose research objectives are described and illustrated in this article.