Euroleish.net, the London networking retreat

Under the motto “Control of leishmaniasis, from bench to bedside and community” EuroLeish.net supervisors, fellows and partners joined the 2nd networking retreat at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), in the last week of November.

EuroLeish is a multidisciplinary programme sponsored by the European Union Framework Programme for Research and Innovation (Horizon-2020), aiming at developing new tools and strategies to control leishmaniasis worldwide. There are 15 individual projects in the programme, in diagnosis and treatment of leishmaniasis and in leishmaniasis prevention. The projects concern basic, translational and implementation research, and the bridging among these 3 main fields.

All students are involved in a three-year PhD research, covering several scientific fields, such as genetics, microbiology, epidemiology, informatics, and financial areas to help eradicate leishmaniasis. Another important objective of the programme is to train researchers in leadership, scientific excellence, interdisciplinary, teamwork and autonomy skills. During their training, all researchers will spend at least 6 months in a non-academic (e.g. SME, NGO) institution and a minimum of 2-3 months abroad to conduct part of their project. 

The members gathered all together in London for the 2^nd retreat as mid-term review of the 15 PhD projects. ITM and its partner institutions are involved in the following projects:

• Marleen Boelaert, 1.7 Access to care for leishmaniasis in Africa (student: Temmy Sunyoto);
• Philippe Büscher, 1.5 Diagnostic mimotopes for antibody detection in visceral leishmaniasis (student: Vera Kühne);
• Jean-Claude Dujardin, 1.2 Estimation of the risk of developing resistance to antileishmanial drugs (student: Aya Hefnawy); also PhD promotor of Bruno Henckel at the University of Antwerp and co-supervisor in project 2.2. Development of a recombinant vaccine against canine leishmaniasis. From differential gene expression to the field (student: Luis Martins)
• Maria Zolfo, co-supervisor (with University of Aveiro) in 1.8 A Leishmania knowledge centre to support health care professionals and patients (student: Assel Syzdykova);
• Raffaella Ravinetto, Ethics board;
• Ermias Diro,  University of Gondar (Ethiopia), as partner institution.

The next appointment is coming up at ECTMIH 2017 in October, in Antwerp!