ISLAMABAD, AUG 6 /DNA/ – Lecture on protozoan drug discovery: Old drugs, new targets and mining for novelty، delivered online by Professor Paul W. Denny, Professor in Biosciences Department, University of Durham, United Kingdom. This was a second lecture of COMSTECH-NTD Network joint lecture series.

Prof. Paul said that it is very important initiative to engage with COMSTECH, it is very important to reach out beyond the consortium to other countries and individuals who are interested in and suffering burden of neglected tropical diseases, which we are trying to mitigate.

He said, our primary aim is to identify new molecular targets which are essential for the parasite and can be exploited for drug therapy by March 2022.

He mentioned that the neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a major health and economic burden in member states of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation.  He informed that the control and elimination of NTDs requires both a scaled-up and integrated global mass treatment programmes, along with new tools and technologies to tackle these diseases.

COMSTECH, in collaboration with NTD Network – Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases, has launched a virtual lecture series for researchers across the Muslim world.  This programme offers opportunities to enhance knowledge, skills and connections of researchers, to help grow our shared global capacity to tackle these rapidly growing NTDs.

The NTD Network, funded by UKRI’s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), is a consortium of academic researchers from South America, Asia, and the UK, seeking new therapeutic solutions to Leishmaniasis and Chagas diseases.

Both COMSTECH and NTD Network aim to promote global scientific cooperation and build research capacity to find new and better therapeutic solutions for NTDs.

This webinar was open to academics, scientists and the general public from all OIC member states. More than 190 people joint this lecture online.=DNA

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