University given £7.9m to help fight deadly diseases

A UNIVERSITY is to be at the forefront of efforts to find new drug treatments for devastating diseases around the world after winning a £7.9 million research award.

Dundee University is to work jointly with pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) to continue developing treatments for parasitic diseases, including visceral and cutaneous leishmaniasis and Chagas’ disease, over the next five years.

These diseases cause substantial suffering and an estimated 60,000 deaths annually worldwide, the university said.

The funding is from the Wellcome Trust and follows the announcement of £13.6m from Wellcome last December to establish the Wellcome Centre For Anti-Infectives Research at the university to tackle some of the world’s most devastating diseases.

Professor Paul Wyatt, director of the centre, said: “The development of effective and safe drugs for leishmaniasis and Chagas’ disease will save many lives and improve the quality of life and economies within the developing world.

“The continuing unmet medical need is caused by the current therapies being not fit for purpose, and recent clinical trials failures and sparse drug discovery pipelines across the world.

“There is general agreement treatment with a combination of drugs is required for these diseases.

“The team combines world-renowned parasitology, extensive experience developing drug molecules that can kill the parasites and the substantial expertise and infrastructure required to develop drug candidates suitable for clinical trials.

“This funding from Wellcome is a vital boost to us achieving our fiveyear goal of producing three new drug candidates suitable for clinical trials in leishmaniasis and Chagas’ disease.

“We are already making very strong progress in finding possible drugs to treat visceral leishmaniasis.”

Leishmaniasis is caused by the protozoan Leishmania parasites, which are transmitted by the bite of infected female phlebotomine sandflies and affects some of the poorest people on earth.

Chagas’ disease is found mainly in endemic areas of 21 Latin American countries, where it is mostly transmitted to humans by contact with faeces or urine of triatomine bugs, often known as “kissing bugs”.