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Refining, reducing and replacing in vivo WHO-standard preclinical assays of snake venom pathology and antivenom efficacy

To understand the mechanism to reverse the neglect of snakebite victim

Explore the use of tiny targets to control Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) in Chad

Determine the effectiveness of integrated control of Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT) in a model district in DRC

To determine the effectiveness of tiny target technology in controlling tsetse vectors for Human African Trypanomiasis

Which strategies best strengthen strategic decision making for resilient and responsive health systems at the district level in Ghana, Malawi, Uganda and Tanzania?

How to best support close-to-community providers in their critical interface role between health systems and communities

What are the best approaches to develop sustainable and equitable approaches to human resources for health, health financing and governance in post conflict health systems?

What are the most strategic approaches to building capacity for gender equity analysis in health systems?

Determine the best health systems approaches for:

1. Improved planning and delivery of integrated programmes; 
2. Increased and sustained access to NTD drugs; 
3. Harmonised inter-sectoral approach; and 
4. Strong and generalisable evidence base for integrated elimination and control of NTDs.

Developing new diagnostic tools to monitor insecticide resistance in sandflies in India

Improving effectiveness of vector control against Visceral Leishmaniasis

Defining the insecticide resistance status of dengue vectors in Jeddah and Makkah; essential prerequisite to developing an effective response in the event of an outbreak in these important sites.

Assessing treatment needs for school-aged children and assisting Ministry of Health to develop an effective control programme

Understanding the basic pharmacology of praziquantel tailored to paediatric setting and developing a treatment access plan for this age class

Helping increase and sustain the scale-up of preventive chemotherapy campaigns in West and Central Africa

Deliver at least one novel pre-clinical candidate capable of delivering a macrofilaricide treatment for onchocerciasis (and lymphatic filariasis) within a seven-day treatment period or less.

Establish the best registered drug for deployment as a macrofilaricide alone and/or in combination with standard anti-filarial drugs.

Late lead optimisation

Establish the most promising template for final lead optimization from a screen of >10000 compounds from the BioFocus library which revealed compounds with very good anti-Wolbachia activity.

To strengthen the capacity of the 5 African university departments hosting the Malaria Capacity Development Consortium (MCDC) programme

The development of Trypanosoma brucei within the tsetse vector is accompanied by the expression of several stage-specific families of GPI-anchored surface glycoproteins. We recently discovered that saliva from T.brucei-infected tsetse flies is enriched with Brucei Alanine-Rich Proteins (BARP), VSG and a novel family of GPI-anchored surface glycoproteins. The latter are phylogenetically grouped within the Clade IV of family 50 of trypanosome surface proteins and are encoded by five paralogs, whose products are over 90% identical in sequence. Immunofluorescence and transcript analysis showed that Clade IV proteins are expressed on the surface of metacyclic trypanosomes and also on epimastigotes and pre-metacyclic forms although in lower abundance. This expression pattern opposes that of BARP, which is highly expressed in the epimastigote stage and diminishes during differentiation to metacyclics. Because Clade IV proteins are almost identical in sequence and are heavily expressed in the metacyclic stage, we named them Metacyclic Invariant.

To develop a polyspecific, non-cold chain liquid snake antivenom with unparalleled sub-Saharan African efficacy

Cutaneous Leishmaniasis (CL) is exclusively transmitted by the bite of a female sand fly. In collaboration with the Saudi Arabian Ministry of Health, we have developed a programme aiming to prevent and control CL in this country. The programme focuses, among other aspects, in developing a rapid diagnostic test based on the patient’s anti-alpha-Gal response, and in identifying markers for disease exposure. We recently found evidence that treatment efficacy against Old World CL varies with parasite species, geographical locations and the development of secondary infections. This has implications on the treatment of this debilitating disease. The severity of a leishmaniasis ulcer partly depends on the patient’s previous exposure to sand fly bites. This explains the increased protection against CL in individuals living in CL-endemic areas and supports development of potential vaccine models based on sand fly salivary proteins. Furthermore, Old World CL patients produce high levels of anti-Gal antibodies (i.e. recognise terminal alpha-galactosyl epitopes). This discovery is currently being exploited for the making of rapid diagnostic tools and a potential protective glycovaccine model against CL. We hope that these tools can soon be applied in other CL-endemic countries, including refugee settings.

Determine whether doxycycline treatment daily for 6 weeks improves clinical outcomes (swelling, acute attacks) in lymphedema patients.

To assess filarial exposure in the study population and mosquito infection status prior to and after the start of intensified malaria control interventions.

Field validation of the diagnostic performance of the Wb123/Ov16 biplex rapid diagnostic test and Wb123 ELISA, compared to the filariasis test strip (FTS) in a setting initially found to be non-endemic for lymphatic filariasis, in which clinical cases have been identified.

Assess the overall acceptability of the 3-drug treatment in the community as compared to the 2-drug treatment

Clinical Trial Triple Drug Study for LF

To compare the performance of antigen (FTS) and antibody (Wb123 monoplex) tools in programmatic settings (TAS).

Preliminary Findings and Lessons Learned

The goal of this study is to compare the performance of antigen (FTS) and antibody (Wb123 monoplex, Wb123 ELISA, multiplex) tools in programmatic settings (TAS). In order to strengthen the existing TAS platform we need to better understand which diagnostic indicator(s) are best-suited for making programmatic decisions. The TAS was conducted in Trou de Nord and Plaisance EUs.  Both EUs passed the TAS, but positive FTS were identified (4 and 2, respectively). However the Wb123 RDT found ZERO positive children, of the over 2000 tested. While the Wb123 ELISA testing is still ongoing, this initial result agrees with findings from other studies, all of which suggest that the Wb123 RDT is too insensitive a tool to be of programmatic use.