The PREV_PKDL third annual meeting was successfully held via a three-hour teleconference on 27 April 2021 with representatives from all consortium’s partners and members of the project Scientific and Ethics Advisory Committee. The project is led by Dr Sophie Houard (European Vaccine Initiative, Germany) with partners from United Kingdom, Ethiopia, Kenya, Uganda and Sudan.
The progresses made and the challenges encountered during the third year of the project were discussed by the partners during the meeting. The ethics review process for the multidimensional, multiparameter phenotyping research study is ongoing at each study site in Africa. The Institute of Endemic Diseases (IEND) in Sudan is the first site with all ethics approvals in place. Work is ongoing for the establishment of the flow cytometry centre of excellence that will support the PREV_PKDL funded-studies as well as other research activities in the East-African Region. A status update was also given on the GMP manufacture of a new ChAd63-KH vaccine clinical lot and the planning of the phase II clinical trial in Sudan.
On the picture: top line - Prof. Joseph Olobo (PI, Makerere University)
Bottom line from left to right - Dr. Jane Mbui (Clinical development, Kenya Medical Research Institute), Prof Nirmal Ganguly (SEAC member), Prof. Paul Kaye (PI, University of York), Dr. Sophie Houard (Project Coordinator, EVI), Prof. Asrat Hailu (PI, University of Gondar), Dr. Margaret Mbuchi (PI, Kenya Medical Research Institute), and Dr Flavia D’Alessio (Project Manager, EVI).