On March 12th – 15th 2024, we attended the 24th Drug Design & Development Seminar (DDDS) of the German Society for Parasitology (DGP) “Combining Efforts towards Human and Animal Parasitic Diseases". The meeting took place at The Biocenter of the University of Würzburg in Germany.

Susanne Kramer presented our findings in her talk "The mRNA decapping enzyme of Trypanosoma brucei is a promising drug target".

Three of our young researchers presented posters:

P2 "Substrate specificity of the unique trypanosome mRNA decapping enzyme" - Leticia Pereira, University of Würzburg, Germany | Carlos Chagas Institute (ICC), FIOCRUZ/PR, Curitiba, Brazil

P4 "Structure-function studies of the mRNA decapping enzyme of Trypanosoma brucei" - Dawid Dzadz, University of Warsaw, Poland

P7 "Targeting a unique mRNA decapping enzyme for trypanosomatid infectious disease drug discovery" - Maria Grechnikova, Charles University in Prague, BIOCEV, Prague, Czech Republic

We also used this occasion to hold a kick-off meeting for our WEAVE consortium of Kramer, Zoltner and Gorna labs. We made plans for the nearest stage of our work on the characterization of ALPH1 as a target for drugs against diseases caused by parasitic trypanosomatids.