Projects
Improve research capacity in infectious disease to inform policy & control strategies Institute of Tropical Medicine
Make Rwandan institutes leaders in infectious disease prevention, diagnosis and control Institute of Tropical Medicine
RESIST- Building a Resilient and Sustainable Immunization System in Tanzania KU Leuven
Immunization programs are very crucial in meeting most of the goals of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development (SDG), particularly SDG 3 (ensuring healthy lives and promoting well-being at all ages). Specifically, effective immunization directly leads to the realization of SDG 3.2 (By 2030, end preventable deaths of newborns and children under 5 years of age), SDG 3.3 (By 2030, end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and ...
Dense spatiotemporal modelling of freshwater snails that transmit schistosomiasis – a citizen-scienceapproach KU Leuven
Vector-borne diseases affect more than 3.9 billion people around the world, with the vast majority living in sub-Saharan Africa. Among these diseases, schistosomiasis is only preceded by malaria in terms of prevalence and morbidity. Schistosomiasis is caused by parasites of the genus Schistosoma that use freshwater snails as intermediate hosts (IH). Since IH snail distribution determine where snail-borne diseases occur, information on snail ...
Sabbatical Luc Brendonck: Ecology, evolution, conservation and ecotoxicology of temporary aquatic systems KU Leuven
During my research sabbatical I will collaborate with expert teams in Spain (UV and CSIC) and South Africa (NWU). As part of ongoing projects I will jointly study topics that belong to the core of my research portfolio. With teams at CSIC and NWU I will study the ecology of temporary wetlands by combined field work and experimental approaches. With the CSIC team I will focus on the ongoing impact of climate change on abiotic and biotic ...
Mechanisms of P. vivax chloroquine resistance: a transcriptomic/transgenic approach Institute of Tropical Medicine
Preventing snail-borne diseases through improved monitoring and community involvement KU Leuven
Snail-borne diseases (SBDs) are caused by trematodes, parasitic worms that are transmitted by freshwater snails. They affect communities and reduce economic productivity. By affecting man and animals they are listed as important zoonoses and control efforts should be executed in a 'One Health' approach. The most important of these SBDs in southern Africa is schistosomiasis (snail fever or bilharzia), a neglected tropical disease (NTD) which ...
Exploration and validation of riboflavin synthesis as a novel target for antifungal drugs KU Leuven
Nearly one billion people worldwide suffer from fungal infections and this number is increasing vastly due to a growing population of immunocompromised patients. Invasive fungal infections are accompanied with high mortality rates exceeding that of malaria and breast cancer. Finding new antifungal drug targets is challenging due to the high conservation between fungi and humans, as both are eukaryotes. A pathway that is promising in this ...
IDENTIFICATION, MOLECULAR CHARACTERIZATION AND QUANTIFICATION OF AEDES MOSQUITO-BORNE VIROME IN CAMEROON KU Leuven
Global health security is increasingly threatened by emerging and re-emerging pathogens originating mainly from wildlife whose consequences to human and animal health can be devastating. Many of these pathogens are vectored by blood-feeding arthropods, specifically mosquitoes. The mosquito is an efficient vector for a multitude of virulent pathogens such as Plasmodium spp., filarial nematodes, Zika virus, dengue virus, Rift Valley fever virus ...