Congratulations to Network members Dr Ashish Arora (CSIR-CDRI, Lucknow, India) and Professor Ehmke Pohl (Durham University, UK) and their teams, on their first joint publication! Ashish and Ehmke met at the Network’s first HUB meeting in India, May 2018, and subsequently began collaborating to solve the crystal structure of the Leishmania donovani RAB5a protein, which is essential for parasite survival in its human host. Their work, funded via a NTD Network ‘Pump Priming’ allocation, establishes new links between their respective research institutions, and has supported the imitation of what Ashish and Ehmke intend as a long and fruitful partnership; one which could, in time, enable discovery of a new ‘druggable’ therapeutic target against visceral forms of leishmaniasis, a potentially lethal neglected tropical disease (NTD).
