February 08th 2021

The BRCCH and EDCTP
Start a New Joint Initiative

The BRCCH and the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) are to support three multi-institutional, multi-country collaborations for research to mitigate the impact of COVID-19. Three collaborative projects are responding to the COVID-19 pandemic with research to improve the surveillance and management of COVID-19. The projects are a result of a synergistic Collaboration Initiative by EDCTP and the BRCCH to drive interdisciplinary efforts to combat global health challenges amidst the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Collaboration Initiative:

In 2020, each organisation launched its own emergency mechanism to support research in COVID-19. The EDCTP mechanism focused on efforts in sub-Saharan Africa to manage and/or prevent the spread of COVID-19 and targeted four thematic research gaps: therapeutics, diagnostics, serological testing, and understanding of the natural history of infection. The BRCCH Fast Track Call initiative focused on research within diagnostics, immunology and medical interventions that will help mitigate medical and public health challenges in the short term, and to also contribute solutions that will lead to better preparedness and reduced global disease burden in the long term.

Realising the potential for collaborative efforts, the EDCTP and the BRCCH initiated dialogues between Principal Investigators (PIs) in their respective programmes. BRCCH-EDCTP consortia that wished to pursue a potential future collaboration were then invited to submit formal applications for external peer-review. The applications underwent evaluation in November 2020.

This joint BRCCH-EDCTP Collaboration Initiative will support three projects that range from immunology to diagnostics and health screening strategies for COVID-19 in low- and middle-income country (LMIC) settings. The projects, which are a complementary extension to the ongoing research activities being funded by BRCCH and EDCTP, will launch in early 2021 and will be supported with 900,000 CHF in total funding over a period of two years. Involved BRCCH researchers are based in the centre's partner institutions: ETH Zurich, Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and the University Hospital Basel.

Researchers do community outreach in remote areas in Lesotho in order to increase access to essential health services. Image: SolidarMed & Swiss TPH

 

The Research:

Improving Access to SARS-CoV-2 Screening and Testing through Community-based COVID-19 Case-Finding and the Use of Digital Solutions in Lesotho and Zambia
In a collaboration between teams in Lesotho and Zambia, Dr Klaus Reither (Swiss TPH, BRCCH grantee for the MistraL project) and Dr Kwame Shanaube (Zambart, EDCTP grantee for the TREATS-COVID project) will investigate the effects of community-led interventions, rapid point-of-care diagnostics and swab self-collection in mitigating the COVID-19 epidemic in these African nations. The project will be carried out by 14-member consortium, including collaborators based at  the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, SolidarMed, FIND and KNCV Tuberculosis Foundation.

African-European Partnership for Development and Deployment of Rapid SARS-CoV-2 RNA and Antigen Detection Assays
Prof Janos Vörös, Prof Wendelin Stark (both ETH Zurich, BRCCH grantee for a Rapid Diagnostic Test project and for the peakPCR project, respectively) and Dr Ahmed Abd El Wahed (University of Leipzig, EDCTP grantee for the Suitcaselab project) aim to advance novel and rapid COVID-19 diagnostic technologies tailored for poor-resource and emergency settings. Including partners in France and seven African countries, the 13-PI consortium will co-develop a rapid lateral flow diagnostic assay, a portable PCR device operated in a mobile suitcase lab for use in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). The consortium includes collaborators from the Institut Pasteur de Paris, Institut Pasteur de Dakar, Institute Pasteur de Madagascar, KNUST, University of Ibadan, INRB, University of Khartoum and Makerere University.

COVID-19 Antibody Repertoires in Infection and Vaccination
The project co-led by Prof Andreas Moor (ETH Zurich, BRCCH grantee for a B-Cell Immunity project) and Dr Julie Fox (King’s College London, EDCTP grantee for the COVAB project) aims to investigate B cell-mediated immunity to SARS-CoV-2 infection in different health states. Specifically, the consortium will investigate and compare the effects of SARS-CoV-2 infection on the antibody repertoire in patients who contract the virus through natural means, in COVID-19 patients who also suffer from HIV and in vaccinated individuals. This consortium involves four researchers from institutions in the UK and Switzerland (in addition to the two named above, the University Hospital Basel).

    About EDCTP:

    The mission of the European & Developing Countries Clinical Trials Partnership (EDCTP) is to reduce the social and economic burden of poverty-related diseases in developing countries, in particular sub-Saharan Africa, by accelerating the clinical development of effective, safe, accessible, suitable, and affordable medical interventions for HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria, neglected infectious diseases, lower respiratory tract infections, diarrhoeal diseases and infectious diseases of epidemic potential, including Ebola and COVID-19 . EDCTP is supported by the European Union under Horizon 2020, its Framework Programme for Research and Innovation.

     

     

    BACK TO ALL NEWS