Launch of the COMSTECH-NTD NETWORK researcher training webinar series
Congratulations: Professor Simon Croft to receive honorary degree
Great news: Professor Simon Croft, Professor of Parasitology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) and the chair of our International Advisory Panel, is to be awarded an Honorary Degree of Doctor of Science from Durham University in 2022. This award is in recognition of his outstanding achievements in NTDs research, including his work on kinetoplastids and other parasites. We offer Simon our congratulations and heartfelt thanks for his ongoing support of our project!
… Continue reading
ECR online conference 2021: Connecting our teams from across the Network!
Huge thanks to all who joined us last week for our first early career researcher (ECR) online conference! The symposium, held over Thursday 18th and Friday 19th February 2021, connected 0ver 100 delegates from our academic teams, spanning all career stages, nine time zones, and three continents. Crucially, this has been the easiest way to bring together our membership from India, Pakistan, South America, and the UK in one meeting. Taking the hosting software platform to its limits, we scheduled 15 oral presentations over four sessions, interspersed with breakout rooms for 26 poster presentations. One of our speakers commented, “Hope you repeat the experience soon, I am eager to participate again!”. Thanks; yes, we will! … Continue reading
NTD Network online seminar series 2021
Our NTD Network online seminar series is entering its second year! Huge thanks to you all who have supported us by attending, and who gave us such encouragement to continue with your positive feedback about these talks after the 2020 series. And please keep showing up – it is great to see all your faces!! Our programme for 2021 is below. These meetings are for our Network members and their teams, providing a safe forum to share and discuss data across our projects – watch your inbox for our regular email alerts and zoom links!
NTD Network ECR conference 2021: we will meet in the air! (ok, the Zoom room…)
Preparations are in full swing for our first ever early career researchers (ECR) online conference! This event provides opportunities for our ECRs to present their work at a closed meeting and is available for all involved with the NTD Network research programme or a related project. The conference will comprise talks and poster presentations from teams across all HUBs of the Network, held over two days, and spanning 9 time zones!! ***NB this is a closed meeting for NTD Network members only*** Join us to present updates on your work and connect with colleagues from around the world, via talks and poster sessions!
Looking for (endosymbiotic) love? Check out this sci-art show!
No plans yet for Friday evening? Why not join the party at Looking for Endosymbiotic Love, a live show launching a science-art project, cooked up by NTD Network PhD student and parasitologist Yasmine Kumordzi (Durham University), and performer RJ Lloyd. In this highly creative approach to science outreach, these two friends ‘personify’ a range of complex and neglected infectious diseases as lonely hearts, on the lookout for romance… The project has resulted in a 2021 wall calendar and launch event, to be live-streamed this Friday, 4th December, 7-8pm UK time (free tickets here.) Or if you don’t want to wait, click here for a blast of Yasmine herself, introducing leishmaniasis – her ‘endo’ of choice (i.e. her specialist research area!!). What’s not to love? 🙂
Crystallising a new collaboration: Researchers reveal the structure of Leishmania donovani Rab5a protein
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).
In the spotlight: NTD Network research highlighted in new RSC Medicinal Chemistry themed collection
This May saw the launch of a new themed collection of articles from the Royal Society of Chemistry’s journal, RSC Medicinal Chemistry, bringing together scientific breakthroughs and incisive insights from global experts seeking new routes to therapeutic solutions for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). This themed collection, entitled “Neglected Tropical Diseases” and edited by NTD Network members Dr Charles Mowbray (DNDi), Professor Nahid Ali (IICB Kolkata) and Dr Steven Cobb (Durham University), currently includes 15 articles. Read their editorial introduction to this collection here.
NTD Network goes online: our seminar programme for 2020!
With COVID-19 curtailing everyone’s movements worldwide, our Network members are now meeting online! Our seminar series launched last week, and will run through the rest of this year, with talks scheduled from our Network HUB leads and Network Fellows. Please note these seminars are closed meetings, for our current NTD Network members and their teams, plus our international advisory panel – if this includes you, there will be email updates ahead of each meeting, with instructions on how to join the meetings. Click ‘more’ for the timetable and speakers schedule. We hope to see you soon! … Continue reading
Reconnecting: Launch of the NTD Network online research seminars series