Weekly round-up #126

Weekly Round-up #126

In this week's round-up we welcome a new VALIDATE Investigator and you will find the usual mix of news and career opportunities.

Welcome Prof Sheila Nathan

Prof Nathan, VALIDATE's latest Investigator, is based at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia, making Malaysia the 53rd VALIDATE country! Prof Nathan's research focusses primarily on the gram-negative tropical pathogens including Burkholderia pseudomallei, it's mechanism of pathogenesis and how it interacts within the infected host.

You can find out more on Prof Nathan's VALIDATE Profile Page.

If you think any of your colleagues or collaborators would be a great addition to VALIDATE, let them know about the benefits of VALIDATE membership and encourage them to join.

Summer Seminars

Apologies that we had some technical issues with the VALIDATE Summer Seminars registration forms. These are now all resolved and you still have time to register for our upcoming talks:

Next Thursday 23 July at 17:00 BST we have Melioidosis and Glanders with Associate Professor Mary Burtnick from University of Nevada Reno, USA
The following week we will release the recording Nonspecific factors in the immunopathogenesis of leishmaniasis with Associate Professor Hiro Goto and Dr Eduardo Milton Ramos Sanchez from the Universidade de Sao Paulo, Brazil. We will then hold a live Q&A on Wednesday 29 July at 14:30 BST.

WHO Public Call - Diagnostic accuracy on nucleic acid amplification tests to detect TB and resistance to selected anti-TB agents

Nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT) are promising technologies for the rapid and accurate detection of TB and resistance to selected anti-TB agents. In December 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) will convene a Guidelines Development Group (GDG) meeting to update its diagnostic guidelines on the use of NAATs to detect TB and resistance to selected anti-TB agents. Ahead of this meeting, WHO will commission reviews of relevant evidence on diagnostic accuracy for several NAAT assays. Relevant data can be sent to ldr.policies@who.int by 1st August 2020 and find out more on the WHO Website.

Funding:

Funding is still negatively affected by the COVID-19 pandemic but we are expecting more opportunities as the lock-down is lifted and we will keep you up-to-date on our funding page.

The African Academy of Sciences International Research Management Staff Development Programme - The programme aims to build research capacity at African institutions by knowledge exchange between UK and Africa as part of the ongoing ARMA/AAS Research Management Programme in Africa (ReMPro) - deadline 10 August

Training Opportunities and Events:

Not much in way of events to week but be sure to keep up to date via our Training Opportunities and Events pages.

Job Opportunities:

Research Fellow in Infectious Disease Modelling, LSHTM, London, deadline 29 July
Postdoctoral Research Scientist in Structural Vaccinology, University of Oxford, UK, deadline 4th August

Our jobs page is updated regularly.

Publications:

Designing and developing a high-resolution melting technique for accurate identification of Leishmania species by targeting amino acid permease 3 and cytochrome oxidase II genes using real-time PCR and in silico genetic evaluation, Ghafari SM et al, in Acta Tropica
Factors that influence vaccination decision-making among pregnant women: A systematic review and meta-analysis, Kilich E et al, including VALIDATE Members Heidi Larson and Sara Dada, in Plos One
A second generation leishmanization vaccine with a markerless attenuated Leishmania major strain using CRISPR gene editing, Zhang WW et al, in Nature Communications
Burkholderia pseudomallei multi-centre study to establish EUCAST MIC and zone diameter distributions and epidemiological cut-off (ECOFF) values, Karatuna O et al, in Clinical Microbiology and Infection
Protection against mycobacterial infection: A case-control study of mycobacterial immune responses in pairs of Gambian children with discordant infection status despite matched TB exposure, VALIDATE Member Basu Roy et al in EBioMedicine
Vaccines against parasites, Tizard IR, Chapter 22 of Vaccines for Veterinarians 2021

Our Publications Page has an up to date list of VALIDATE members' publications. Email validate@ndm.ox.ac.uk if you have recently published a paper so that we can include it.

Highlights on Twitter this week

A tweet from one of our newest members, Shilpa Sengupta, saying 'Feeling great to be part of VALIDATE', made us all smile; it's always a boost for our Management Team seeing the high levels of excitement and engagement amongst our members. On Tuesday BactiVac were looking forward to a meeting about The Global AMR Innovation Fund, we helped EDCTP promote their Career Development Fellowships, and TB News Daily shared an article on how TB helped fuel the 1918 flu pandemic. IVVN shared a new resource that summarises research gaps in 53 animal diseases, Lepra UK published an FAQ on Leprosy and WriteThatPhD published a guide on improving your chances of being published. Nature Careers are asking for input from researchers on their 2021 training programme and the BSI launched their Teaching Excellence Award. We also shared some exciting news about Leishmaniasis vaccine development and also promoted an interesting opinion piece by Jimmy Smith, from the International Livestock Research Institute, discussing how 'a one health approach is needed to protect both people and the planet'.

Published: 15 July 2020