$3 million for Chagas research

Murdoch University’s Parasitology Research Group and its campus-based partner, medicinal chemistry company Epichem, have received $3 million from the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) to work on Chagas disease.

Chagas disease is a form of trypanosomiasis and is mainly found in South America. Its African form is known as sleeping sickness.

DNDi is a not-for-profit drug development organization based in Geneva.

Chair of Murdoch’s Parasitology Research Group, Professor Andrew Thompson, said the $3 million would be put toward equipment and cover the salaries of three new chemists and two parasitologists.

“The Parasitology Group was first funded by DNDi to develop new drugs to treat Human African sleeping sickness, which led them to realise the group had the capability to be a screening centre for other parasitic diseases in the neglected diseases area,” Thompson said.

He said the group will become the only screening centre in the southern hemisphere screening drugs against the major vector–borne diseases.

The Centre for Drug Optimisation at Monash University, which also works with Epichem and the Murdoch group on African sleeping sickness, will also be part of the Chagas consortium.

For more on the Murdoch/Epichem research on trypanosomiasis, see our story Waking up to sleeping sickness.