The big, exciting news this fortnight was the award of an additional £600k to VALIDATE to further our aim to accelerate vaccine development for TB, leishmaniasis, melioidosis and leprosy by the UK Industrial Strategy Challenge Fund. This will help us fund our Fellowship programme and extra pump-priming projects, and we're excited about how we can expand the VALIDATE programme to take advantage of this additional funding. 

Aside from this, updates we've spotted are:

Funding: 

• BactiVac Catalyst Funding - our sister GCRF Network, focusing on bacterial vaccine development is offering pump-priming funding for relevant projects - 22 Apr 2018
• InnovateUK - for business projects aiming to lead to new products, processes or services (or novel use of existing one); academic institutes can be collaborators - 9 May 2018
• Chinese Academy of Sciences' President's International Fellowship Initiative (PIFI) - fellowships for four categories of international researchers and students: distinguished scientists, visiting scientists, postdoctoral researchers and international PhD students - 1 Sep 2018

​​

Training/CPD:

• UK MP-scientist pairing scheme (Royal Society) - opportunity for UK scientists to get an insight into how MPs and civil servants work - 15 Apr 2018
• Executive Programme for Global Health Leadership (LSHTM) - Sep 2018
• Professional Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (East African Partnership) - 27 Aug-23 Nov 2018

Events:

• Neglected Tropical Disease NGO Network Annual Conference - 24-26 Sep 2018
• London 2018 Women Leaders in Global Health Conference - 8-9 Nov 2018

Jobs:

• Postdoctoral Fellow (lymphocyte research) - MRC, London, UK - 9 Apr 2018

Papers:

• Rapid detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in sputum with a solvatochromic trehalose probe
• High monocyte to lymphocyte ratio is associated with impaired protection after subcutaneous administration of BCG in a mouse model of tuberculosis - by VALIDATE members Andrea Zelmer, Lisa Stockdale, Helen Fletcher and collaborators
• Melioidosis - by VALIDATE member Alfredo Torres and collaborators
• Melioidosis in Mexico, Central America, and the Caribbean - by VALIDATE member Alfredo Torres and collaborator Javier Sanchez-Villamil, part of the "Global Burden and Challenges of Melioidosis" special issue of Trop Med Infect Dis

​If you have a paper published do let us know!

On Twitter this week we've tweeted about: a new insectary opening at University of Calgary to study leishmaniasis; the stigma still affecting leprosy sufferers forced into leper colonies in Madagascar; a LSTM lecture available online 'Research capacity strengthening (RCS) in low and middle-income countries: time for a dedicated RCS science?' by Dr Justin Pulford; how "researchers from New Zealand have developed a vaccine adjuvant, which could help the body mount a more effective immune response to vaccines, with potentially fewer side-effects"; a great article and infographic showing just how important vaccines are and a reminder of life before them; and another great article on vaccine hesitancy and how we can combat it. Do follow us @NetworkVALIDATE to keep up to date.

Finally, just a quick note that next week's round-up will be published on Thursday instead of Wednesday as we're attending the European Melioidosis Conference on the 20th and 21st - we look forward to seeing many of you there!

Published: 14 March 2018