On a quiet day before the start of the UK University term, the UK-based members of the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) left their desks in York and Durham Universities, for the wilds of North Yorkshire. The cosy hospitality of the locally renowned Charles Bathurst Inn (Arkengarthdale) was a warm contrast to the wild weather that swept down the valley during our meeting! This event provided a perfectly timed opportunity to review the year and think ahead, sharing ideas and insights.
This November, our student training workshop “New anti-leishmanial leads from natural sources”, hosted at the International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi, brought together an international team of staff and 30 early career researchers from south Asia and across the Middle East.
For Dr Paul Denny and myself, the visit included a meeting with Dr Bahram Khoso and his clinical team at Jinnah hospital, Karachi; here, the human reasons behind our pre-clinical research became clear, and very real. Before us stood four children, siblings; each face disfigured by cutaneous leishmaniasis.
“If I have seen further, it has been through standing on the shoulders of giants” (John of Salisbury, 1159).
NTD Network partners and colleagues from Durham, UK and universities from across Sao Paulo state in Brazil gathered this week at Durham University to launch an inter-institutional sister collaboration, investigating transmembrane proteins from neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and other infectious agents.
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.
