Typhoid research boosted by prestigious Marie Curie fellowship award

Typhoid research boosted by prestigious Marie Curie fellowship award

Aberdeen researchers' battle to find new treatments for typhoid has been boosted after winning one of the most prestigious and competitive awards in Europe.

Dr Virtu Solano has secured a Marie-SkÅ‚odowska-Curie Fellowship which will allow her to contribute to the work of Dr. Stefania Spanò’s research group into the disease that kills more than 200,000 people every year.

More than 7,500 proposals were submitted for European Individual Fellowships this year with life sciences historically amongst one of the most competitive areas for funding.

The successful application is indicative of the high quality of the applicant, the project, the host institute and the supervisor.

What is Typhoid?

Typhoid fever is a life-threatening bacterial infection caused by Salmonella Typhi.

In some developing countries where poor sanitation is a concern, it continues to kill hundreds of thousands of people each year, 

As with many diseases, antibiotic treatments have started to lose their effectivity and new alternative therapies need to be identified.

S. Typhi only infects humans and can live inside macrophages - cells of the immune system that act as humans’ first line of defence against infections. Normally macrophages react to kill infections but S. Typhi is able to evade their attack and go on to live and reproduce inside these cells.

Other animals’ macrophages are able to kill off S. Typhi.

Important research questions

  1. Why does S. Typhi only cause disease in humans?
  2. How and why are animals able to successfully fight S. Typhi?

Dr Solano says: “My research will be focused on the interplay of S. Typhi with macrophages from animals, specifically from mice. My main ambition is to understand how macrophages kill S. Typhi through the identification of the weapons that they use.

“My project will also complement alternative strategies that are currently going on in Dr. Spanò’s laboratory to address this specific question.

“Undoubtedly, answering this question will give us insights on what is going on in humans. The outcomes of our research will also lead to the identification of novel strategies to treat typhoid.”

In addition to the researcher salary, The Marie-SkÅ‚odowska-Curie Fellowship contributes to the research and training costs of the project. 

Search News

Browse by Month

2024

  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec There are no items to show for December 2024

2004

  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov There are no items to show for November 2004
  12. Dec

2003

  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec There are no items to show for December 2003

1999

  1. Jan There are no items to show for January 1999
  2. Feb There are no items to show for February 1999
  3. Mar
  4. Apr
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul
  8. Aug
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov
  12. Dec

1998

  1. Jan
  2. Feb
  3. Mar
  4. Apr There are no items to show for April 1998
  5. May
  6. Jun
  7. Jul There are no items to show for July 1998
  8. Aug There are no items to show for August 1998
  9. Sep
  10. Oct
  11. Nov There are no items to show for November 1998
  12. Dec