Pump-piming Grants Round 6 Awarded

VALIDATE provides pump-priming grants to support innovative research projects that accelerate vaccine development for our focus pathogens.

From our latest funding round, we are excited to support 11 groundbreaking projects:

• Immune Signatures of Chronic Tuberculosis and Cutaneous Leishmaniasis led by Dr Menberework Chanyalew Negatue, Armauer Hansen Research Institute (AHRI), Ethiopia
• Profiling the mycobacterial immune response in human lung tissue to inform novel TB vaccine design led by Assistant Professor Alba Llibre Serradell, University of Birmingham, United Kingdom
• Accelerating BCG Efficacy: Targeting Dendritic Cell Migration in Tuberculosis Immunization led by Luciana Balboa, Instituto de Investigaciones Biomédicas en Retrovirus y Sida (INBIRS), Argentina
• Burden of Burkholderia pseudomallei in Nepal to inform vaccine needs (BURNEP study) led by Dr Suraj Bhattarai, Global Health Research & Medical Interventions Institute (GLOHMED), Nepal
• CCR4LEP: Exploring CCR4 as immune correlate of protection for leprosy led by Dr Anouk van Hooij, Leiden University Medical Center, Netherlands
• Development of Versatile and Cost-Effective Next-Generation Vaccines through Multivalent Approaches led by Dr Julen Tomás Cortázar, University College Dublin, Ireland
• Comparative testing of Ag85 isoforms and consensus sequence optimisation for next-gen TB vaccines led by Dr Andy Tran, St George’s, University of London, United Kingdom
• Determining the metabolic impact of BCG vaccination led by Dr Mrinal Kumar Das, University of Leicester, United Kingdom
• Melio MuSe: Multiplex Serology advancing multicomponent melioidosis vaccines led by Dr Gabriel Wagner-Lichtenegger, Medical University of Graz, Austria
• Discovering anti-Mycobacterium tuberculosis monoclonal antibodies from TB-exposed, disease-free individuals led by Dr Shi-Hsia HWA, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), USA
• Assessing the immunogenicity and protective efficacy of a telomerase deficient Leishmania major, led by Dr Mark Shiburah, CSIR, Ghana

Find a full list of our Pump-priming Grant projects online: www.validate-network.org/funded-pump-priming-projects