Representative for Italy in the COST ACTION CM1307- Management Commette

Advances in the chemotherapy against human and animal parasitic diseases remain limited largely because drug candidates have low specificity and show poor in vivo bioavailability. The Action aims at uniting scientists with different backgrounds to create synergistic interactions paving the way for antiparasitic drug discovery for diseases caused by protozoa and helminths. The scientific aim is to bundle together the identification and validation of parasite drug targets based on the established genomes, medicinal chemistry including structure-based drug design, crystallography, bioinformatics, and drug targeting using chemical and nanotechnological approaches to improve drug performance. Also, rational assessment of the potential of natural product and other compound libraries will be used to identify new leads. Crucially, the Action will create an unprecedented combined forum for human health scientists and veterinarians, because of the enormous unmet needs in treating human and animal parasitic diseases and due to methodological homogeneity of their drug design strategies. The most promising compounds and formulations will be tested in established infection models before further preclinical and clinical development with emphasis on drug safety. Expected benefits include intensified cooperations between Academia and Industry. This will be achieved through focused conferences, networking, a dedicated website and training schools for state-of-the-art technologies.