Weekly round-up #189

Watch now: VALIDATE Annual Meeting Days Two!

Day Two of the VALIDATE Annual Meeting was a great success and we would like to thank everyone who attended. We'd also like to thank our amazing speakers who discussed their VALIDATE Pump-priming projects. You can watch the event on the VALIDATE Hub and can still register for Day Three on the Annual Meeting 2021 page.

 

VALIDATE Seminar - Vaccine Development and Sero-diagnosis of Leprosy - 30 November 2021

Leprosy is a neglected disease, but research is essential as the elimination of leprosy bacilli from host cells presents a significant challenge. This may be due to the quiescent nature of Mycobacterium leprae. Infection of host cells induces differential responses in humans, based on which the disease shows a spectrum of disease manifestation, from lepromatous on one pole to tuberculoid form on the opposite pole. 

The advent of multidrug therapy (MDT) has revolutionized the control of leprosy, but elimination can only be achieved with a vaccine.

BCG is the most studied vaccine and holds promise. Several studies indicate that BCG confers some protection against leprosy. In this talk Dr Yumi Maeda, of the Leprosy Research Center National Tokyo Institute of Infectious Diseases, Japan, will discuss how her team has constructed a recombinant BCG that secretes Major Membrane Protein-II of M. leprae, and found that it was effective in inhibiting the growth of M. leprae in mice footpads. Studies are underway to produce BCG that is stable and can be used for large scale preparation.

Detection of leprosy is also necessary for early treatment. From the analysis of the genomic sequence, specific genes coding for antigens of leprosy were selected for evaluating the antibodies in the sera of patients, and user-friendly tools are also being developed.

You can register online.

 

Funding:

• UK-US research: ecology and evolution of infectious diseases 2021​​ - ​The funders wish to encourage high quality, innovative research on the ecological, evolutionary, and social drivers that influence the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases - deadline 24 November 2021

• Purchase mid-range equipment for biosciences research: ALERT 2021 - Advanced research equipment and the development of capability in this area is a key component in maintaining the competitiveness of the UK research base - 25 November 2021
• NIH Planning Grant for Global Infectious Disease Research Training Program, 2021 - To support an LMIC-US collaborative planning process that will prepare faculty and design courses and resources for a research training programme - deadline 28 October2021
• Wellcome - Four-year PhD Studentships in Science, 2021 - This scheme offers graduates outstanding training in scientific research - deadline 31 October 2021
• 20ALERT: Mid-range equipment funding, 2021 - The minimum value is £200,000 (inc. VAT) at 100% full economic costing over 12 months. The call budget is approximately £10 million - deadline 26 November 2021

You can find a list of all relevant external funding we've spotted for our members on our external funding page.​​​​​

 

Training Opportunities and Events:

• Online Debate: COVID-19 Vaccine and the General Population: Addressing access, misinformation and hesitancy, Online, 28 October 2021
• BCG Symposium, Lille, France, 17 November 2021
• VIB Science Translational Immunology Conference, VIB Headquarters, Ghent, Belgium, deadline 22 November 2021
• Webinar for future New Investigator applicants to Responsive Mode, Online, 25 November 2021
• British Society for Immunology Congress 2021, London, United Kingdom, 28 November 2021

Find more training and events opportunities on our Training and Events pages.

Job Opportunities:

• Assistant Professor, Department of Immunology, Harvard Medical School, US, No stated deadline
• Scientist/Civil Service: Higher Executive Officer, UK Health Secuity Agency, Porton Down, UK, deadline 26 Oxtober 2021

There are many more relevant career opportunities on our jobs page.

  Publications:  

• Development of a bivalent conjugate vaccine candidate against rotaviral diarrhea and tuberculosis using polysaccharide from Mycobacterium tuberculosis conjugated to ΔVP8* protein from rotavirus, Wook-Jin Park WJ et al, in Vaccine

• Weaker protection against tuberculosis in BCG-vaccinated male 129 S2 mice compared to females, Nieuwenhuizen NE et al, in Vaccine

• More than seven decades of Acta Tropica: Looking back to move into the future, Brattig NW et al,in Acta Tropica

• Antimicrobial resistance detection in Southeast Asian hospitals is critically important from both patient and societal perspectives, but what is its cost, Roberts T et al in Plos Global Public Health

Check out our Publications Page for members' publications and email VALIDATE@ndm.ox.ac.uk if you have a paper you would like us to include.

Highlights on Twitter this week:

The WHO released their annual update on the update on the TB pandemic, GlobalTB Caucus were live-tweeting their conference,  and EDCT were promoting their annual forum. The Union shared an article about how TB spreads simply through breathing (article in French) and WriteThatPhD has some advice for developing a theoretical framework and evaluating qualitative research. Nature Careers published a series on research mentoring including articles on helping develop mentees independence, how COVID has changes mentoring, the many mentoring types and the difference between mentoring, coaching, supervising. The Indian Council of Medical Research celebrated recruiting 12,000 participants for phase three vaccine trials for the IMMUVAC and VPM1002. Stay up to date with all the relevant news and opportunities by following @NetworkVALIDATE on Twitter.

 

Published: 20 October 2021