ISNTD d3 2021

Drug discovery, development & diagnostics for neglected tropical diseases

Online conference 

24-25th February 2021

#ISNTDd3

#beatNTDs

Introduction

ISNTD d³ 2021 addresses the current gaps and collaboration opportunities across tropical diseases and diseases of poverty to accelerate drug discovery & development, vaccine R&D and uptake, and diagnostics and surveillance opportunities. 

​

This year, against the backdrop of the recently launched WHO NTD Roadmap and the shock of the COVID19 pandemic, ISNTD d³ will focus on the shifts, gaps and future needs of drug discovery, treatments and diagnostics in context of global health as well as broader challenges.

​​

Presentations & panel discussions will run on both days, and partnership meetings can be arranged throughout the day.

​

Please contact krafiq@isntd.org for further details including speaking & attending and to become a conference sponsor.

Programme

DRUG DISCOVERY & DEVELOPMENT

ISNTD d3 2021: DAY 1

24 FEB 2021

9.00-10.00 UTC

Rethinking financial incentives for drugs and diagnostics for Neglected Tropical Diseases

Andrew Jack (Financial Times) 

Panel chair 

​

Dr Hayato Urabe (Senior Director, Investment Strategy, Portfolio Development & Innovations, GHIT Fund)

Dr Olawale Ajose (Head of Access, Neglected Tropical Diseases, DNDi)

Margo Warren (Government Engagement & Policy Manager, Access to Medicine Foundation)

Dr Pauline Beattie (Operations Manager, EDCTP) 

10.15-11.45 UTC

Putting access at the centre of future drug development 

Margo Warren (Government Engagement & Policy Manager, Access to Medicine Foundation)

Dr Isaac Chikwanha (Senior Director: Investment Strategy, Access & Delivery, GHIT Fund)

Dr Olawale Ajose (Head of Access, Neglected Tropical Diseases, DNDi)

Mathias Duck (Chair of the ILEP Panel of Persons Affected by Leprosy)

11.50-13.10 UTC

Focus: snakebite & snakebite envenoming

Research to address the disease burden of tropical snakebite: challenges and progress

Chair: Prof Robert Harrison (Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Centre for Snakebite Research & Interventions)

Dr Cecilia Ngari, Dr Frank Tianyi, Dr Devin Sok, Dr Rachel Clare (African Snakebite Research Group / Scientific Research Partnership for Neglected Tropical Snakebite / CSRI)

13.15-14.45 UTC

COVID19, neglected tropical diseases and repurposing  

COVID, NTDs and repurposing: what are the questions, or lessons so far?

Dr Nathalie Strub-Wourgaft (Director of Neglected Tropical Diseases, DNDi)

​

CURE ID and the CURE Drug Repurposing Collaboratory's (CDRC) Role in Drug Repurposing for NTDs and COVID-19

Heather Stone (Health Science Policy Analyst, US Food & Drug Administration)

​

Ivermectin and COVID: what's going on?

Dr Carlos Chaccour (BOHEMIA Chief Scientific Officer, ISGlobal)

​

When secretomes meet anthelmintics: lessons for therapeutic interventions

Dr Lucienne Tritten (University of Zurich)

​

Drug repurposing for controlling vectorial transmission of Neglected Tropical Diseases

Dr Alvaro Acosta-Serrano (Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine) & Dr Laith Yakob (London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine)

15.00-16.30 UTC

Focus: leishmaniasis

Visceral leishmaniasis: the discovery & clinical landscape 

Prof Maria Paola Costi (Drug Discovery and Biotechnology Lab, University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, UNIMORE)

​

Current and future perspectives for the development of new treatments for visceral leishmaniasis
Dr Fabiana Alves (Head of Visceral Leishmaniasis Clinical Programme, DNDi)

​

Cutaneous leishmaniasis: from bench to cure 

Dr Byron Arana (Head of Cutaneous Leishmaniasis, DNDi)

​

Topical treatments for cutaneous leishmaniasis 

Prof Dolores Carrer (Biophysics and Nanotechnology Lab, INIMEC-CONICET-UNC, Argentina)  

Biophysical characterization and integrated MD simulation studies of Trypanothione Reductase in Leishmania major

Anurag Kumar (Computational & Systems Biology Lab, National Centre For Cell Science, Pune, Maharashtra, India)

DIAGNOSTICS FOR NEGLECTED TROPICAL DISEASES

ISNTD d3 2021: DAY 2

25 FEB 2021

9.15-10.45 UTC

Essential diagnostics for neglected tropical diseases: from technology to access, for disease elimination 

Launch of the World Health Organisation's third Essential Diagnostics List 

Dr Francis Moussy (Secretary, SAGE IVD and Essential Diagnostic List, World Health Organisation) 

​

Access to visceral leishmaniasis diagnostics and impact towards attaining the elimination targets in Kenya

Dr Dziedzom Komi de Souza (Senior Scientific Officer, NTD programme, Foundation for Innovative New Diagnostics, FIND) 

Focus: schistosomiasis 

Reconciling egg- and antigen-based estimates of Schistosoma mansoni clearance and reinfection; a modelling study

Dr Jessica Clark (University of Glasgow) ​

​

Schistosoma eggs, circulating antigens or DNA? What do these different diagnostic markers reveal when monitoring praziquantel treatment in a clinical trial?

Dr Pytsje Hoekstra (Leiden University Medical Center, the Netherlands)

10.50-12.20 UTC

Diagnostics innovation for tropical diseases

 CRISPR-Cas9-based Point-of-care (PoC) diagnostics for infectious diseases in resource-limited settings

Dr. Mitasha Bharadwaj (Delft University of Technology, Kavli Institute of Nanoscience Delft, Department of Bionanoscience)

​

Pulse-controlled-amplification: a new powerful tool for on-site diagnostics

Dr Katharina Müller (Institut für Mikrobiologie der Bundeswehr, Germany)

​

LAMP for Mycobacterium bovis & neglected disease diagnostics

Dr Thoko Flav Kapalamula (Hokkaido University, Japan)

​

Minimally invasive sampling for Cutaneous Leishmaniasis diagnosis using a microbiopsy device

Saskia Van Henten (ITM Antwerp)

​

A lab-on-chip system to detect malaria

Kenny Malpartida Cardenas (Department of Electrical and Electronic Engineering, Imperial College London)  

12.30-14.00 UTC

Diagnostics gaps for vector-borne diseases & the challenges of febrile illnesses

Diagnostic gaps and challenges for primary healthcare delivery in resource-poor settings 

Dr Prudence Hamade (Malaria Consortium)

​

Digital diagnostics for Africa: more than filling the gap

Dr Aubrey Cunnington (Department of Infectious Disease, Imperial College London)

​

Multiplex panels for the accurate diagnosis of nonmalarial febrile illnesses

Dr Samuel Duodu (West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens, University of Ghana)

​

Novel biomarkers to distinguish between causes of febrile illness

Dr Myrsini Kaforou (Department of Infectious Disease, Imperial College London)

​

Development of rapid diagnostic tests for arboviruses and viral haemorrhagic fevers

Dr Joseph Fitchett (Centre for Advanced Rapid Diagnostics, Mologic)

14.15-15.45 UTC

Diagnostics beyond diagnosis: evaluation, surveillance & monitoring

Rethinking neglected tropical disease diagnostics to achieve elimination

Katie Gass (Director of Research, The Task Force for Global Health, Neglected Tropical Diseases Support Center, NTD-SC)

Why we need the next generation of point of care tests

Dr Francis Krampa (West African Centre for Cell Biology of Infectious Pathogens, University of Ghana)
 

Genomic-informed pathogen surveillance in Africa: opportunities and challenges

Dr Seth Inzaule (Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia)

​

The need for better diagnostics for environmental pathogen detection

Dr Anthony Sifuna (Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, Kenya)

​

Value and application of data from digital diagnostics

Darlington Akogo (Director of minoHealth AI Labs, Ghana)

​