Weekly round-up #112

Weekly round-up #112

Understandably, both the media and the vaccine research community around the world have been focused on the COVID-19 pandemic, but the VALIDATE team is still working hard (from home!) to keep our network engaged and updated with the goings on for our focus pathogens TB, leishmaniasis, leprosy and melioidosis.

On Thursday 26 March we supported the British Society for Immunology's #CelebrateVaccines Campaign launch. The campaign celebrates the role of vaccines in improving global health. Launched on Twitter, it provides a number of resources, including guides, videos, infographics, and activity packs designed to engage the public about the importance of vaccines. The campaign is ongoing and we would encourage our members to investigate and share some of the excellent resources.

Last week for World TB Day, our new Communications and Events Coordinator, Blakeley Nixon, interviewed our Director, Prof Helen McShane, about TB and the VALIDATE network. A slightly extended version of this interview has now been turned into a YouTube video that we hope you’ll enjoy and share.

https://www.youtube.com/embed/vzMyNeV2Gck

We are always interested in hearing from our members. If you have any research or articles you wish to share with your fellow VALIDATE members, or a success you wish to celebrate, email validate@ndm.ox.ac.uk.

Funding:

A number of funding institutions have provided updates about the impact of COVID-19 on their grant schemes, both for new applicants and for current grant holders:

For anyone applying for or receiving a grant from the Wellcome Trust, you can find information on how the COVID-19 situation is impacting their funding on the Wellcome Trust Website
UK Research and Innovation have published information on the impact of the pandemic on their work and funding streams for those receiving grants
For those receiving support from The National Research Council (South Africa) they have also published a Communique to Stakeholders with updates about its activities

We would encourage any of our members who are concerned about their funding or grant applications to contact the relevant funding body; most are being supportive about issues caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.

The following deadlines are upcoming:

IVVN Fellowship Programme: International Veterinary Vaccinology Network (IVVN) fellowship programme to support the professional development of female postdoctoral researchers from low-and-middle income countries (LMICs) - deadline 9 Apr 2020
RSTMH Small Grants - To enable ECRs and global health professionals in the field of tropical medicine or global health to undertake clinical or scientific research and/or fieldwork – deadline 27 Apr 2020
Wellcome Trust International Training Fellowships - Scheme offering nationals of LMICs the opportunity to receive training at postgraduate or postdoctoral level - deadline 7 May 2020 (Extended)
MRC Infection & Immunity Board Programme Grants - UK based researchers' programmes for infectious human disease and disorders of the human immune system - deadline 13 May 2020
MRC Infections & Immunity Board Research Grants - UK based research into infectious human disease and disorders of the human immune system - deadline 13 May 2020
MRC Infection & Immunity Board New Investigator Research Grants - To support researchers becoming principal investigators - deadline 13 May 2020
MRC Infection & Immunity Board Partnership Grants - Core funds to support partnerships between diverse groupings of researchers for one to five years - deadline 13 May 2020
Women in Innovation Awards - To find and support the UK's most promising female innovators and develop their ideas - registration TBA, 2020

You can find lots of further open grant calls on our funding opportunities page.

Training Opportunities:

We’ve kept our training opportunities page up to date with the changes caused by the COVID-19 outbreak.

Events:

Our events page will keep you up to date on changes made to external events due to the COVID-19 outbreak. In addition, the VALIDATE Team is looking at ways to bring members together over the next few months, if only electronically. Keep an eye on Twitter, LinkedIn and visit our events page to keep informed.

Job Opportunities:

Clinical Operations Leader - The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation Cambridge, MA USA
Grants Manager - RSTMH, London, UK, deadline 29 Apr 2020

Visit our job webpage for further opportunities that are currently available.

Publications:

BCG as a Case Study for Precision Vaccine Development: Lessons From Vaccine Heterogeneity, Trained Immunity, and Immune Ontogeny, in Frontiers in Microbiology
Ecology of Sand Flies: (Psychodidae: Phlebotominae) Natural Infection of Pintomyia townsendi With Leishmania amazonensis in a Cutaneous Leishmaniasis Focus in Colombia, in the Journal of Medical Entymology
Altered Proteome Of A Burkholderia Pseudomallei Mutant Defective in Short-Chain Dehydrogenase Affects Cell Adhesion, Biofilm Formation And Heat Stress Tolerance, by VALIDATE Member Onrapak Reamtong and Collaborators, in Peerj

Our publications page is an easy way to find papers that may be of interest to you.

Highlights on Twitter this week: On Thursday, we helped spread the word about the #CelebrateVaccines campaign by the British Society for Immunology. There was also further discussion about the possible use of BCG in protecting against COVID-19 and we shared The Union's excellent guide on the similarities and differences between TB and Coronavirus. If you’re on Twitter, do follow us to more easily keep up-to-date @NetworkVALIDATE.

Published: 01 April 2020