ParaFrap supports the organization of the EMBO Workshop: Molecular advances and parasite strategies in host infection, from September 30 to October 3, 2018 on Les Embiez Island (south of France). The 2018 workshop, supported by EMBO, is to bring together the international experts in Parasitology to understand how parasite survival mechanisms are controlled, developed and organized. 

More details coming soon ...

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The 2nd ParaFrap bioinformatics workshop starts this week in Montpellier. This workshop is organized by Prof. Patrick Bastien, Scientific Coordinator and Coordinator of the ParaFrap Doctoral Program, and Prof. David Roos of the Eukaryotic Pathogens DataBase 'EuPathDB' team, internationally renowned for the quality of its training sessions on bioinformatics tools.

The workshop program is available here : 2nd_ParaFrap_Bioinfo_Workshop_2017

Follow the news of the workshop on twitter :

Molecules that target both malaria infection and transmission ... Because they are linked to a steroid, new molecules derived from ortho-aminocresols, already known for their antimalarial action, prove to be more effective in killing the parasite in the infected host, but also to block its transmission. This work, published in Nature Communications, is the result of a multidisciplinary and international collaboration led by German researchers (universities of Jena and Giessen) and French members of ParaFrap (Elisabeth Davioud-Charvet - Molecular Chemistry Laboratory, Institute of Biology Molecular and cellular CNRS with the collaboration of the laboratory of Stéphanie Blandin - Inserm "Immune response in the Anopheles mosquito vector of malaria" of Strasbourg). This work shows that for their survival, the parasites responsible for malaria and toxoplasmosis depend on mechanisms inherited from the plant world. This discovery represents a major advance in the development of new therapeutic targets against these parasites with major public health consequences.

This work has been the subject of numerous press releases, which you can find HERE.

Référence :

Arylmethylamino steroids as antiparasitic agents. Krieg, R., E. Jortzik, A. A. Goetz, S. Blandin, S. Wittlin, M. Elhabiri, M. Rahbari, S. Nuryyeva, K. Voigt, H. M. Dahse, A. Brakhage, S. Beckmann, T. Quack, C. G. Grevelding, A. B. Pinkerton, B. Schonecker, J. Burrows, E. Davioud-Charvet, S. Rahlfs and K. Becker (2017).  Nat Commun 8: 14478. Link

Plasmodium falciparum and Toxoplasma are mandatory intracellular parasites, which represent a major threat to global health. They infect hundreds of millions people every year, leading to high mortality, especially among children. An international team coordinated by Mohamed-Ali Hakimi, a ParaFrap member at the Institute for the Advancement of Biosciences, and including researchers from EMBL-Grenoble and ANACOR pharmaceutical, has discovered a new molecule, AN3661, which stops the proliferation of parasites. The molecule allows a complete cure of mice infected with Toxoplasma. This study was published on February, 1, 2017 in EMBO Molecular Medicine journal. This work has been the subject of numerous press releases, which you can find HERE (French).

Référence :

Targeting Toxoplasma gondii CPSF3 as a new approach to control toxoplasmosis. Palencia, A., A. Bougdour, M. P. Brenier-Pinchart, B. Touquet, R. L. Bertini, C. Sensi, G. Gay, J. Vollaire, V. Josserand, E. Easom, Y. R. Freund, H. Pelloux, P. J. Rosenthal, S. Cusack and M. A. Hakimi (2017).  EMBO Mol Med [9.5]. Link