Going the distance: First NTD Network AGM in Montevideo, Uruguay
Posts by: NTD Network
The NTD Network in Argentina: Our team at CONICET
Today the National Scientific and Technical Research Council (CONICET) in Argentina published an interview with Professor Claudio Pereira on the NTD Network and the role of our Network partners amongst its membership. The Network project is seeking novel drug targets towards solutions for two neglected tropical diseases, Chagas disease and leishmaniasis, alongside forging new industrial collaborations and training early career researchers in the specialist skills needed for this vital work.
Claudio, based at the Instituto de Investigaciones Medicas Alfredo Lanari in Buenos Aires (IDIM, CONICET-BA) is scoping the druggable potential of proteins involved cross-membrane transport of metabolites in Trypanosoma cruzi (causing Chagas disease). Read the interview on the work of Claudio and his team, here.
Our other partners are Professor Julia Cricco at the Institute of Molecular and Cellular Biology of Rosario (IBR, CONICET-UNR), investigating components of heme uptake and biosynthesis, and Professor Guillermo Labadie at the Rosario Institute of Chemistry (IQUIR, CONICET-UNR), investigating naturally-sourced compounds for their potential as novel anti-parasitic drugs.
Guilllermo is co-organising an upcoming Network training workshop in skills for drug discovery, at Mendoza City, Argentina, 2-4 November 2019; bursaries are available to support students to attend. Workshop information is available via our events page.
From Rio to Durham, for crystal clarity on how leishmania parasites survive inside their host
“Structure is the starting point for understanding any protein!”
Dr Amy Goundry (front, right) is currently a post-doctoral research associate from the lab of Ana Paula Lima (Federal University of Rio de Janeiro). Amy’s career to date has focussed on one, puzzling protein. “Inhibitor of Serine Peptidase 2” (ISP2), is a protein found in Leishmania parasites, enabling them to infect their mammalian (including human) hosts. Serine peptidases are enzymes with key roles in health and disease, appearing in organisms everywhere from viruses and bacteria to humans – everywhere that is, except in Leishmania. Once a sandfly bite has introduced Leishmania parasites into the body of a mammal host, they must quickly infect white blood cells, and modify the behaviour of these cells, in order to survive. The parasites produce ISP2, which inactivates white blood cell serine peptidases and halts the immune response.
“…but after more than a decade of research, we still don’t know how ISP2 works!”
This puzzle has brought Amy to Durham University for a 5-week secondment with our structural biologists – Dr Ehmke Pohl and the crystallography team.
… Continue reading
Making plans for making friends: Pakistan HUB members visit the UK
Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is endemic across most of the Middle East, and is currently expanding into new areas. This August, CL specialists Professor Iqbal Choudhary (Pakistan HUB leader) and Dr Sammer Yousuf, from the International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi, journeyed to connect with colleagues from the Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) in Durham and York. Their visit consolidated plans for a training workshop, “New Anti-leishmanial Leads from Natural Sources: Concepts and Approaches” at the ICCBS on 8th-9th November, following the “7th annual Symposium on Molecular Medicine and Drug Research” at the University of Karachi, 4th-7th November. The NTD Network is collaborating with the University of Karachi to support early career researchers (ECRs) from Middle Eastern countries to attend both events.
Amplifying the possibilities: Long awaited new PCR equipment arrives in Karachi
After a long wait, a piece of vital equipment, the “CFX96 Touch™ Real-Time PCR Detection System”, co-funded by the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) and the University of Karachi, has now arrived at the International Center for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS). The machine (a white box with screen – visible in the right of the picture) now enables Network members Iqbal Choudhary, Sammer Yousuf and the Karachi team to use the polymerase chain reaction technique (PCR) DNA amplifying technology to identify genetic variations between strains of Leishmania parasites, causing leishmaniasis. This purchase is also a behind-the-scenes administrative triumph for international collaboration, highlighting some of the bureaucratic difficulties we navigate with our NTD Network colleagues in developing countries.
… Continue reading
Second CGID meeting in Newcastle: Sharing enthusiasm and insights for infectious diseases research
The second Centre for Global Infectious Diseases (CGID) annual meeting, a joint venture Durham University and the University of Newcastle, took place today at the Newcastle Medical School, hosted by our colleagues from the Newcastle University Fungal Research team. This year’s programme showcased some of the engaging research into global infections that takes place across the northeast UK, and gave particular emphasis to early career researchers working on globally-significant diseases, many of which impact developing countries. … Continue reading
Extending our capacity: Bringing CRISPR technology to parasitologists in Asia
This March, 2019, a diverse group of 28 students gathered at Kolkata’s Indian Institute for Chemical Biology, for a workshop providing practical skills in genetic manipulation of Leishmania parasites using CRISPR-Cas9 technology. These new skills will transform their careers, and in time may improve the lives of people affected by leishmaniasis, a global problem which poses a risk to the lives of millions of people in India and Pakistan alone.
Off the well-trodden path: Ribeirão Preto’s forest offers diverse potential new drug solutions
Prior to delivering a workshop at the University of São Paolo (USP) Ribeirão Preto campus, UK Network members Patrick Steel, Paul Denny, Ehmke Pohl and colleagues from USP and Durham University, spent a day exploring. The Serra da Canastra national park in Minas Gerais, the origin of the São Francisco river, is home to a tropical and scrubby forest, known to these scientists as USP professor Noberto Lopes’ “chemical hunting ground”. The workshop, “Development and evaluation of bioactive compounds” (March 25th-29th 2019; funded by Brazil’s Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) ‘SPRINT’ initiative), equipped ~40 Brazilian postgraduate students with skills to source novel chemicals from plants, fungi and animals. USP’s natural products library already holds many naturally-sourced compounds new to science, but more are needed – as leads for new medicines to treat the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) affecting Brazil and other developing countries. On this hot day, the team veer off a well-trodden path to go exploring in the forest, taking in spectacular waterfalls and an impromptu swim.
One small box, two big smiles: New equipment for Chagas disease research arrives in Rosario
February 20th, 2019, and Dr Julia Cricco (right) gathers her research team at the National University of Rosario (UNR), Argentina, to greet the new arrival; a small, grey box… This unremarkable-looking machine is a ‘Nucleofector’ from Lonza, purchased with Equipment Fund support from the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). This device will transform the speed at which Julia’s group can progress towards identifying valid biological targets for developing new drugs against Chagas disease. The arrival of this one small box is therefore much celebrated, provoking excitement and big smiles all round!
Great work: NTD Network PhD student in Brazil wins poster prize