On October 20th (Friday), we had the honor of hosting the 10th WISE/LP Seminar with an online lecture

from Professor Neelika Malavige of the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka.

 

This time, the seminar was organized and hosted by Ms. JAYAWEERA MUHANDIRAMGE Sasini Jayaweera from Division of Bioresources.

 

Professor Malavige, who also works as the head of the Global Dengue Program in Geneva, provided

a detailed presentation on dengue fever, sharing various data and case studies related to dengue in

Sri Lanka and other affected regions. Simultaneously, she addressed social issues such as the impact of

climate change and the economic conditions in the affected areas, which offered valuable insights.

During the Q&A session following the lecture, Professor Malavige provided detailed answers to questions

from our students.

 

Thank you very much, Professor Malavige and Sasini-san, for this insightful seminar!

 

☆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.