Washington D.C. has provided the location for the A·WOL II: Macrofilaricidal Drug Discovery & Drug Development Winter Meeting 2013, this week. A consortium of both academic and industrial partners funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, A·WOL’s aim is to develop new drugs against onchocerciasis (river blindness) and lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis).
The consortium met with collaborators and funders, The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, management committees and external scientific advisory committees to review progress and results and to plan for the forthcoming months. The meeting was held alongside the prestigious American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene (ASTM&H) conference, currently in its 62nd year. A·WOL scientists have been presenting to an international audience during the annual conference, which has been running since Tuesday this week (12th November) and will continue until Sunday.
ASTM&H is a worldwide organisation of scientists, clinicians and programme professionals whose mission is to promote global health through prevention and control of infectious and other diseases that disproportionately affect the global poor.
Members of the A·WOL team have been presenting at a number of scientific and poster sessions today and LSTM’s Senior Lecturer, Dr Joe Turner, be presenting a paper to the American Committee of Molecular, Cellular and Immunoparasitology (ACMCIP) session on Saturday afternoon.