第10回 WISE/LPセミナーを開催しました

10月20日 (金)、Neelika Malavige教授（University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka）に、

スリランカからオンラインでご講演いただき、第10回 WISE/LPセミナーを開催しました。

 

今回は、バイオリソース部門のJAYAWEERA MUHANDIRAMGE Sasini Jayaweeraさんがホストとして企画、および司会進行を

担当されました。

  

ジュネーブのグローバルデング熱プログラムの責任者でもあるMalavige教授は、デング熱について、

また、スリランカをはじめデング熱と影響する地域について、さまざまなデータや事例を示しながら

詳細にお話くださいました。それと同時に、気候変動の影響や、発生地域の経済状況などの社会的

な問題についても言及され、非常に考えさせられる内容でした。

  

ご講演後のQ＆Aでも本学院生からの質問に大変詳しくご回答くださり、本学院で蚊媒介感染症について

研究している学生や、発生地域出身の学生にとっても、大変興味深いものだったと思います。

 

Malavige先生、Sasiniさん、興味深いセミナーをありがとうございました！ 

 

☆Host Student’s Report☆

 

I invited Prof. Neelika Malavige, the Head of the Global Dengue Program at the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative,

in Geneva to the 10th WISE/LP seminar on October 20.

 

She is a professor at the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka.

 

Prof. Malavige got her medical degree from the University of Colombo, Sri Lanka, and completed her doctoral studies

at the University of Oxford. Her research focuses on dengue to discover the therapeutic targets, mediators of vascular leak,

the role of antibodies in disease pathogenesis, correlates of protection in dengue, and translating these findings into clinical

trials. Since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, her laboratory has carried out genomic sequencing and investigated the

immune responses to COVID-19 vaccines and the kinetics of immune responses in patients with COVID-19.

Prof. Malavige is an academic visitor at the University of Oxford and has ongoing collaborations on dengue. In addition,

she has published over 100 peer-reviewed journals, several books, and newspaper articles. Also, she has conducted many

public lectures.

 

Her topic for the seminar was “The Journey Towards Finding a Treatment for Dengue”.

 

In her talk, she highlighted the urgent need for improved dengue treatments, the complexity of the dengue pathogenesis,

the potential for a combination therapy approach to address this global health challenge, and, different research studies

she has conducted with her students and other collaborators. In the question-and-answer session, the students actively

participated by raising many interesting questions and she gave very broad answers with good explanations.

 

The seminar has been ended with great success.