Weekly round-up #157

Welcome to another VALIDATE Weekly Round up packed full of information useful to our members. In #157 we officially announce BCG100.

Launching 24 March 2021: BCG100
On 18 July 1921, a Parisienne newborn infant received the first-ever human dose of an experimental vaccine called Bacille Calmette-Guérin. BCG has subsequently been given to billions of people across the planet, saving tens of millions of lives that would have been lost to one of history’s greatest killers - tuberculosis. To celebrate the centenary of this first use, VALIDATE is launching our BCG100 Programme and we'd want our members to get involved.
 
The Programme
A key VALIDATE aim is 'to help interested people in the general public find out more about our research and the diseases we’re tackling in an accessible format'. So, starting on World TB Day on 24 March, throughout 2021 BCG100 will consist of events and online activities aiming to educate the public about vaccination and to promote the work VALIDATE researchers are doing to improve or replace the BCG vaccine. The campaign will also provide resources to allow our members to undertake their own public engagement.

Get Involved
As a VALIDATE programme, our members will be front and centre to BCG100. Members can get involved in the following ways:

• Support BCG100 Events: Attend and spread the word about the 'BCG Then and Now' & 'BCG100 for Schools' Events (details below).
• Run Your Own Outreach Event as part of the Programme - this could be a 'BCG100 for Schools' talk, an online public lecture, engaging with your local media - or anything else!
• 'BCG Adventures' will be a series of simple, retro computer games aiming to raise interest and awareness of vaccine development - and we'd love your help with the content of these games. 
• Share Your Ideas: If you have any ideas or questions about BCG100, email the VALIDATE Team or post your thoughts on the VALIDATE Hub.

Find out how more on the BCG 100 Members' page and discuss any ideas on the BCG100 Channel of the VALIDATE Hub.

• Systematic functional analysis of Leishmania protein kinases identifies regulators of differentiation or survival, N. Baker et al, in Nature Communication

• Description of two fatal cases of melioidosis in Mexican children with acute pneumonia: case report, Alvarez-Hernandez G et al, including VALIDATE member Alfredo G. Torres & Paulina Estrada-de los Santos

• Intranasal boosting with MVA encoding secreted mycobacterial proteins Ag85A and ESAT-6 generates strong pulmonary immune responses and protection against M. tuberculosis in mice given BCG as neonates, Mayank K et al, in Vaccine

• Therapeutic efficacy of pulmonary live tuberculosis vaccines against established asthma by subverting local immune environment, Tarancón R, in EBioMedicine

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

Published:3 March 2021