Dioraphte Foundation Grant on Skin Neglected Tropical Diseases

The Mycetoma Research Center, recently was granted the Dioraphte Foundation Grant on Skin Neglected Tropical Diseases for a project entitled: The development of a point-of-care diagnostic test for mycetoma in Africa. The project has five collaborating centres and these are:

• Erasmus MC, Department of Medical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, University of Rotterdam, The Netherlands, Dr. Wendy W.J. van de Sande.
• Mycetoma Research Centre (MRC), University of Khartoum: Prof. Ahmed Fahal.
• Service de Parasitologie-Mycologie, UFR Sciences de la Santé, Université Gaston Berger, Saint Louis, Senegal, Doudou Sow.
• Centre for Bacterial Cell Biology, Newcastle University, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, United Kingdom; Prof. Jeffery Errington.
• The Mycotic Diseases Branch at Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), USA, Dr. Ana Litvintseva.

The project aim to allow early diagnosis and treatment in rural areas, to develop a field-friendly Recombinase Polymerase Amplification (RPA) for the five most common mycetoma causative agents and their resistance markers. It will reduce the time to identification time to lead to early diagnosis, appropriate treatment and makes amputations obsolete. The proposal duration is three years.