Drug Discovery Work
Tropical parasitic diseases, as malaria, African sleeping sickness, Chagas disease or Leishmaniasis represent still a large health risk for a majority of the worlds population. These diseases cause over 3 million deaths per year. The high number of disease cases is substantial cause of impediment for the economic development of the countries and the people concerned.
The available drugs for treatment have some important disadvantages:
- reduced availability and high prize
- strong side effects
- long treatment, which can for some drugs only be done in hospital
- drug resistance development
History of our Drug Discovery Work
Our drug discovery work began about 20 years ago with the establishment of semi-automated in vitro assays to determine the activity of compounds and the corresponding rodent models. In the meantime our group became the leading centre for WHO/TDR for in vitro and in vivo drug screening against human infectious protozoan parasites. Within this screening mandate we have more then 20 collaborations worldwide. These screening activities complement activities within the European COST B22 action ‘Drug development for parasitic diseases’.
Oral Diamidines
Another major project is called ‘Oral diamidines for sleeping sickness’ lead by the University of North Carolina and funded by the Gates Foundation. Recently we signed a contract with the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) for the preclinical evaluation of new compounds. The Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) Foundation supports the project ‘Syntheticperoxides’ and the new projects ‘Oral diamidines for malaria’. With a master contract with the MMV, we moved from individual project funding to a screening mandate for the Swiss TPH. This and the contracts with WHO/TDR and DNDi will secure the continuity of the screening unit mid- to longterm.
New Projects
Two new projects were recently added to our drug discovery portfolio, drug evaluation and lead identification for animal diseases and for foodborne trematodes.
