2nd October 2024, 2 -3 pm CEST
This new series of ITM alumni webinars features the four ITM winners of the Prize for Global Research 2024. The Prize for Global Research is awarded yearly by the Province of Antwerp to research projects of ‘master-after-master’-students of ITM and other Higher Education Institutes. Development relevance, quality and originality of the master theses are key in the selection. Through this award, the Province of Antwerp wants to stimulate global research.
In webinar #2, MTM-alumnus and laureate Pedro Henrique L. F. Dantas (Brazil) will share insights from his master thesis, entitled “Optimizing a whole genome sequencing (WGS) method to characterize Monkeypox virus (MPXV) Clade I outbreaks”. In 2022, the world witnessed an outbreak of mpox (previously known as Monkeypox), an infectious disease presenting mostly with skin lesions caused by the Monkeypox virus (MPXV, of Clade IIb).
Currently, mpox cases are rising sharply in endemic countries in Central Africa such as the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and other neighboring countries, this time caused by Clade I MPXV (Ib). Viral whole genome sequencing (WGS) has become an indispensable tool for mpox outbreak investigation.
In his thesis, Pedro Henrique L. F. Dantas developed a sequencing protocol for “clade I” MPXV. This sequencing protocol is cheaper and has a shorter turnaround time compared to regular protocols, making it ideal for implementation in remote areas where most “clade I” MPXV outbreaks occur. By co-developing this protocol with our collaborators, ITM supports genomic surveillance activities aimed to characterizing the ongoing mpox outbreaks in DRC. In this webinar, Pedro will present the main findings and outcomes of his Master of Science in Tropical Medicine (MTM) thesis and discuss his recommendations and conclusion.
The Q&A-session is moderated by his thesis supervisor Koen Vercauteren, who will enable to answer questions from the audience and to share experiences from other contexts.
Speaker
- Pedro Henrique L. F. Dantas, MTM-alumnus 2024, Brazil
Moderator
- Koen Vercauteren, Head of the Clinical Virology unit, Department of Clinical Sciences, ITM, Antwerp
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