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H2020Staff exchange2018–2023

LeiSHield-MATI · A multi-disciplinary international effort to identify clinical, molecular and social factors impacting cutaneous leishmaniasis

Horizon 2020 — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2018-04-01 → 2023-09-30
EU contribution
€1,750,500
Participants
11
Scheme
MSCA-RISE

Lines connect the coordinator with its partners.

Results in brief

A multi-disciplinary international effort to identify clinical, molecular and social factors impacting cutaneous leishmaniasis

Leishmania causes devastating human diseases – leishmaniases - representing an important public health problem in the Mediterranean basin and declared as emerging diseases in the EU due to climate change and population displacement. The LeiSHield-MATI consortium investigates in an integrative fashion the complex parasite-vector-host interplay in cutaneous leishmaniasis affecting Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Iran (MATI), using field isolates and hu-man clinical samples. The ultimate goal of our project is to identify genetic factors selected during natural infection and to understand how the complex parasite-vector-animal interaction impacts clinical outcome in infected patients. This goal will be achieved through a highly ambitious se-condment plan between all partners, and the organization of courses and workshops to train the next generation of scientists generating a long-term impact on the research capacities in endemic areas. Capitalizing on complementary infrastructures of its EU, African and Asian partners and their expertise in molecular parasitology, epidemiology, systems level analyses, bioinformatics, computational biology, immunology, dermatology, field studies, and public health, our project will drive important innovation in clinical research, strengthen capacities in disease endemic regions, inform authorities on control measures, and raise awareness in all partner countries on this emerg-ing EU public health problem. The LeiSHield-MATI staff exchange project has been a very important instrument to train the next generation of scientists from Leishmania endemic countries as judged by the over 257,18 person months of secondments carried out by 106 researchers and the numerous workshops and teaching courses that transferred both hard and soft skills. Through these exchanges, our consortium was driving major scientific discovery and technology innovation, which has been validated through publications on Leishmania genomic adaptation, direct tissue sequencing, rodent infection, sand fly species determination, CL diagnostics, and the skin immune response to infection. The project not only synergized prior existing collaborations but was a major source of new collaboration that will give the project a long-lasting impact on scientific cooperation across disease-endemic regions.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

Leishmania causes devastating human diseases – leishmaniases - representing an important public health problem in the Mediterranean basin and declared as emerging diseases in the EU due to climate change and population displacement. The LeiSHield-MATI consortium will for the first time investigate in an integrative fashion the complex parasite-vector-host interplay in cutaneous leishmaniasis affecting Morrocco, Algeria, Tunisia, and Iran (MATI), using field isolates and human clinical samples. The ultimate goal of our project is to identify genetic factors selected during natural infection and to understand how the complex parasite-vector-animal interaction impacts clinical outcome in infected patients. This goal will be achieved through a highly ambitious secondment plan between all partners, and the organization of courses and workshops to train the next generation of scientists generating a long-term impact on the research capacities in endemic areas. Capitalizing on complementary infrastructures of its EU, African and Asian partners and their expertise in molecular parasitology, epidemiology, systems level analyses, bioinformatics, computational biology, immunology, dermatology, field studies, and public health, our project will drive important innovation in clinical research, strengthen capacities in disease endemic regions, inform authorities on control measures, and raise awareness in all partner countries on this emerging EU public health problem. The highly inter-disciplinary and inter-sectorial structure of LeiSHield-MATI, and its powerful integrative and comparative approach is novel in parasitic systems and will drive a unique bio-marker discovery pipeline for the future development of new prognostic and diagnostic tools, as well as novel preventive and therapeutic measures that will ensure long-term collaboration, promote scientific and commercial self-sustainability of its partners, and will have an important impact to improve public health.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

  • INSTITUT PASTEUR · ParisCoordinatorFrance
  • ACOBIOM · GRABELSFrance
  • COMMISSARIAT A L ENERGIE ATOMIQUE ET AUX ENERGIES ALTERNATIVES · ParisFrance
  • GOETEBORGS UNIVERSITET · GoeteborgSweden
  • INSTITUT DE RECHERCHE POUR LE DEVELOPPEMENT · MarseilleFrance
  • INSTITUT PASTEUR D ALGERIE E.P.I.C. · AlgerAlgeria
  • INSTITUT PASTEUR D'IRAN · TEHRANIran
  • INSTITUT PASTEUR DE TUNIS · TunisTunisia
  • INSTITUUT VOOR TROPISCHE GENEESKUNDE · ANTWERPENBelgium
  • Institut Pasteur Du Maroc · CasablancaMorocco
  • UNIVERZITA KARLOVA · Praha 1Czechia

Links

Data: CORDIS, © European Union