Meta Roestenberg’ s group is part of the consortium, co-leading the clinical trial pillar and leading the Controlled Human Infection work package. As such, three members of the group, Marie-Astrid Hoogerwerf (internist-infectiologist and lead within EVH for LUMC), Savine Hemel (PhD candidate and clinical trial physician) and Laura Pattacini (project manager) accompanied by Mo Weijtens from INFECTA travelled to Marburg and participated in the annual meeting.
Marie-Astrid Hoogerwerf presented an update on the results achieved in the first year of the project by the team as well as future plans, including setting up a CHIM for MPOX and a Chikungunya vaccine trial, and moderated the panel discussion ‘European preparedness, ambitions vs. reality’.
Savine Hemel presented the two posters ‘Mapping CHIM capacity in the EU’, and ‘Mapping the options: Towards a CHIM for mpox’.
The team also actively participated in different workshops, including one focused on requirements for clinical trial sites, and one on EU regulations and the review of the EVH-proposed pandemic preparedness plan.
The first year of the project and the annual meeting were very productive, and the team is looking forward to the next steps: setting up novel CHIM models for pathogens with pandemic potential and creating European networks for CHIM trials and strain manufacturing. It will be busy, but we promise to provide updates as soon as we have some!
Photo Credit: Olaf Küffner