International Research Training Group 1522 "HIV/Aids and associated infectious diseases in Southern Africa"
The scientific topics of this IRTG will focus on translating clinical into basic research on infectious diseases (IDs). In close collaborations with research groups from the Stellenbosch (SU) and Cape Town (UCT) Universities, PhD students at Wuerzburg University will work on IDs caused by HIV (S.Engelbrecht, SU/A.Rethwilm; P.Carey, SU/E.Koutsilieri; W.Preiser and G.van Zyl, SU/J.Bodem), Staphylococcus aureus (E.Wassermann, SU/B.Sinha), pathogenic fungi (G.Brown, UCT/J.Morschhäuser), Plasmodium and HIV (K.Chibale, UCT/G.Pradel, A.Rethwilm), and Leishmania (M.Révaz-Breton, UCT/H.Moll).
In addition, projects on the immunology of infectious diseases (F.Brombacher, UCT/T.Hünig, G.Walzl, SU/M.Lutz), on general mechanisms of virus-induced immuno suppression (N.Mulder, UCT/S.Schneider-Schaulies) and on clinical HIV medicine (M.Cotton and J.Talijaard, SU/H.Klinker) will be conducted.
Speakers (representatives) of this IRTG are Wolfgang Preiser for the South African partners at SU and UCT and Axel Rethwilm for Wuerzburg.
The IRTG projects in detail:
Project 1:
Hartwig Klinker (Wuerzburg) and Marc Cotton (SU)/Jantjie Taljaard (SU):
"The impact of therapeutic drug monitoring on antiretroviral therapy"
Project 2:
Jochen Bodem (Wuerzburg) and Wolfgang Preiser (SU):
"Study of drug-resistant HIV"
Project 3:
Axel Rethwilm (Wuerzburg) and Susan Engelbrecht (SU) :
"Molecular Epidemiology of HIV"
Project 4:
Eleni Koutsilieri (Wuerzburg) and Paul Carey (SU):
"Influence of different HIV subtypes on HIV dementia"
Project 5:
Sibylle Schneider-Schaulies (Wuerzburg) and Nicola Mulder (UCT):
"Targets, mechanisms and consequences of regulated T cell pre-mRNA splicing and their relevance as genetic markers of virally induced or general T cell suppression"
Project 6:
Joachim Morschhäuser (Wuerzburg) and Gordon Brown (UCT):
"Epidemiology, diagnosis and molecular mechanisms of multidrug resistance in Candida albicans and its impact on host fungus interactions"
Project 7:
Klaus Brehm (Wuerzburg) and John Fincham (MRC):
"Characterization of the influence of excretory/secretory products from Echinococcus multilocularis larvae on dendritic cell maturation and the interaction of Echinococcus E/S products with TLR and CTL surface receptors"
Project 8:
Bhanu Sinha (Wuerzburg) and Elizabeth Wassermann (SU):
"Staphylococcus aureus population structure and host cell interaction in chronic infections"
Project 9:
Gabriele Pradel (Wuerzburg) and Kelly Chibale (UCT):
"Generation and characterization of candidates for malaria/HIV combination therapy"
Project 10:
Heidrun Moll (Wuerzburg) and Melanie Révaz-Breton (UCT):
"Characterization of the role of C-type lectins in dendritic cell interactions with Leishmania parasites"
Project 11:
Manfred Lutz (Wuerzburg) and Gerhard Walzl (SU):
"Protective and productive inflammatory responses induced by microbial products studied at the level of dendritic cells"
Project 12:
Thomas Hünig (Wuerzburg) and Frank Brombacher (UCT):
"The role of CD28 mediated costimulation in the control of secondary immune response to infectious agents"
