NTD Network goes online: our seminar programme for 2020!
Category: Network Events
Reconnecting: Launch of the NTD Network online research seminars series
Our huge thanks to Professor Ariel Silber, from the University of Sao Paulo, Brazil, and the head of our South American HUB, who opened our online research seminar series today, introduced by Network Fellow Dr. Brian Mantilla and also to the 65 attendees who joined us! This is the first of a series of talks providing our NTD Network partners with a route to share findings and discuss ideas, in the absence of face-to-face research updates at our AGM this year. The seminars will take place on the first and third Wednesdays of each month, and are open to our NTD Network partners, their teams, and our international advisory panel members. Check our blog page for an updated list of our seminar schedule and speakers for 2020!
A warm Dales welcome for the NTD Network UK HUB meeting
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.
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Gaining skills for drug discovery and beyond: Medicinal Chemistry training in Mendoza
“This training provided me with input which I didn’t know I needed, but has changed everything!”
“These four days have been a real turning point!”
These remarks, from Jaime Isern and Victor De Sousa-Agostino, were the first responses I heard from our two PhD students from Durham University, upon their return from the NTD Network’s medicinal chemistry training workshop, held in Medoza city, Argentina, 2nd-4th November 2019.
Connecting with the challenge of leishmaniasis
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.
Early career researcher skills training in Karachi, Pakistan
The latest NTD Network training workshop, ‘New Anti-leishmanial leads from Natural Sources: Concepts and Approaches’, went live today!
This workshop provides practical training for PhD students, post-docs and faculty members in basic concepts and modern applications to find new anti-leishmanials using natural sources, and is held at the International Centre for Chemical and Biological Sciences (ICCBS), University of Karachi, Pakistan.
Industrial partners commit to join the medicinal chemistry training team in Mendoza, Argentina
Pharmaceuticals industry representatives, NTD Network members and associated colleagues are now on their way to Mendoza, Argentina, to deliver an early career researcher (ECR) training workshop in medicinal chemistry skills, held 2nd-4th November, 2019. This three-day training, “Workshop in techniques and technologies in drug discovery”, will provide ECRs from neglected disease-endemic countries throughout South America with skills in medicinal chemistry and the drug discovery process. The final session of the workshop is an open symposium of drug discovery case studies, delivered by representatives from Novartis, GSK and DNDi. This symposium is free to attend: industry symposium flyer.
Going the distance: First NTD Network AGM in Montevideo, Uruguay
Members of the NTD Network from three continents gathered this month in Uruguay, for our first AGM, held 31st March to 2nd April 2019 and hosted at Institut Pasteur, Montevideo by our institutional lead, Professor Carlos Robello. We had expected that the visit provided us with a chance to review our progress, catch up with the research projects now underway across the Asian, South American and UK HUBS, and also to discuss our strategic way forward, to gain the most we can from this phase of our project (2018-2021). But Carlos and his team also had other surprises in store!
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.
The Road to Caxambu: A gathering and mini symposium recalling the origins of the NTD Network