Asclepios 1 is the name of a research project-team officially launched on November 1 st , 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 scientific interactions 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 specific BIO theme among the main INRIA research directions, which now regroups 16 different research teams including Asclepios, whose research objectives are described and illustrated in this article.