Thomas Dorlo receives €2 million in ERC Consolidator Grant

How do you feel the moment you receive an ERC Consolidator Grant?
After a long process, it is an almost surreal experience — the kind where you think, “Am I misreading this?” Shortly afterwards, an amazing feeling arises that still lingers. More concretely, it is an important seal of quality that our group delivers excellent science at the highest level, but above all, this grant enables research with the potential to make an important difference for some of the world's most vulnerable patient groups.

What is the focus of the work that lies ahead of you?
Available treatments eliminate the Leishmania parasite in the patient's internal organs, but sometimes the parasite remains in the skin, after which the patient might continue to spread the disease via sand flies. Our idea is to supplement the treatment with an oral insecticide, which will reach and kill the sandfly as it feeds on the patient's blood. If we succeed, this will enable a far more targeted and sustainable alternative to today’s practice of spraying premises where the disease is present with insecticides.

Why will you succeed?
The European Research Council rewards excellent and innovative research, and the work on our application alone has already been a creative process that generated many valuable ideas on new ways to apply our pharmacometric tools. In this project, we will broaden our focus from humans and parasites to also include vector control and infection dynamics. Our already fruitful collaborations with academic partners in India – including Banaras Hindu University, a leader in both the treatment of leishmaniasis and sandfly research – also speak in our favor, and with the support of the European Research Council, we can expand and deepen these important partnerships.

What's next?
Everything is still very new, but we will soon begin analyzing existing data from clinical studies focusing on leishmaniasis. We will also gather and review available research on the sandfly and the parasite that causes the disease in order to eventually define an optimal treatment regimen focused on stopping the further spread of the Leishmania parasite.

And what may we look forward to in five years?
Our goal is to present a method that will finally eradicate visceral leishmaniasis. In India, they have already come a long way, but need a new tool to take the last mile. In East Africa, where the disease poses a significant challenge, our results will be of great future significance. In Europe, visceral leishmaniasis is still only present to a limited extent, but sandflies are moving further north driven by climate change, so the European Research Council’s decision to grant us full support is a clear indication that global public health remains high on the EU agenda.

Text: Magnus Alsne, photo: Mikael Wallerstedt a o