Project description
How malaria survives the dry season
A unicellular protozoan parasite of humans, which multiplies rapidly in the blood, is responsible for over 200 million cases of malaria worldwide, and the major burden falls upon children in Africa. The majority of cases occur during the rainy season when there is an abundance of mosquitoes. During the dry season, the parasites hide, rarely causing symptoms despite the decrease in Plasmodium falciparum-specific antibody levels. The EU-funded NotToKill-NotToDie project will test the hypothesis that during the dry season (with no mosquitoes available to transmit), continuous rounds of P. falciparum blood-stage replication lead to a differential gene expression related to cell cycle progression allowing the maintenance of low levels of parasitemia.
Objective
Plasmodium falciparum is responsible for over 200 million yearly malaria cases and the major burden is upon African children. Public health strategies to control and ultimately eradicate malaria are very much needed. In Africa, seasonal transmission of this mosquito-borne parasite is very common. Infections in adults are clinically silent whilst in children it generally leads to clinical disease with nearly half a million deaths each year. The dry season represents a major challenge for the parasite’s survival due to the absence of the transmission vector; yet, P. falciparum seems to be capable of maintaining low parasitemias just enough not to kill but not to die. During the dry season, an important fraction of these children remains clinically silent for months despite the decrease in P. falciparum-specific antibody levels. This low parasitemia reservoir is indispensable to spread transmission in the following rainy season. How do parasites not increase to the point of causing clinical malaria in these children during the dry season? We hypothesize that during the dry season with no mosquitoes available to transmit, continuous rounds of P. falciparum blood stage replication lead to a differential gene expression related to cell cycle progression allowing the maintenance of low levels of parasitemia. The Center for Infectious Diseases, University Hospital Heidelberg has an interdisciplinary and translational orientation and is embedded in partnerships with groups in malaria endemic countries, representing a unique environment to execute the objectives of this project. I offer translational expertise in the malaria from my previous experience in malaria endemic areas of Brazil as well as in state-of-the-art laboratories in the US. This ambitious yet feasible project also offers the opportunity for me to broaden my expertise in malaria by acquiring knowledge in new area, which will allow me to build a solid background from which to become an independent researcher.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- medical and health sciences health sciences infectious diseases malaria
- medical and health sciences health sciences public health
- natural sciences biological sciences zoology invertebrate zoology
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Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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H2020-EU.1.3. - EXCELLENT SCIENCE - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions
MAIN PROGRAMME
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H2020-EU.1.3.2. - Nurturing excellence by means of cross-border and cross-sector mobility
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Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
MSCA-IF-EF-RI - RI – Reintegration panel
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Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2018
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Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
69120 HEIDELBERG
Germany
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.