The VALIDATE Network: Accelerating Vaccine Development for Tuberculosis, Leishmaniasis, Melioidosis and Leprosy

Abstract

Established in June 2017, VALIDATE is an international network of researchers working to accelerate vaccine development for four neglected intracellular pathogens that cause significant mortality and morbidity globally: Mycobacterium tuberculosis, Leishmania spp., Burkholderia pseudomallei and Mycobacterium leprae. In 5 years, VALIDATE has grown to have more than 550 members from over 250 institutes across 72 countries and has had several successes and important outputs. This chapter discusses VALIDATE’s origins, achievements and future direction.

2.1 Introduction

VALIDATE (“VAccine deveLopment for complex Intracellular neglecteD pAThogEns”) is an international network of researchers working to accelerate vaccine development for four intracellular pathogens—Mycobacterium tuberculosis (causing tuberculosis (TB)), Leishmania spp. (causing leishmaniasis), Burkholderia pseudomallei (causing melioidosis) and Mycobacterium leprae (causing leprosy). These pathogens cause significant mortality and morbidity globally, disproportionately affecting low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), and are often neglected due to the poor predicted commercial return on investment for new tools to control these pathogens and marginalisation of affected populations.

The VALIDATE Network was set up in June 2017 in response to a UK Medical Research Council Global Challenges Research Fund grant call for ‘Networks to address vaccine R&D challenges primarily relevant to the health or prosperity of Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMIC)’. The VALIDATE Consortium application, consisting of 32 world-leading researchers from 22 institutes in 8 countries, led by Prof Helen McShane of the University of Oxford, was successfully awarded £1.6M, and VALIDATE was born. Fast-forward 5 years to June 2022, global interest in VALIDATE has grown its membership to more than 550 members from over 250 institutes across 72 countries (44 LMIC) (Fig. 2.1).

Fig. 2.1

VALIDATE has members based in 72 countries worldwide. (Map created with MapChart (https://www.mapchart.net), which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Creative Commons License (CC BY-SA))

The vision for VALIDATE encompasses three main aims:

• 1. To create an engaged and interactive community.

• 2. To accelerate vaccine development for our focus neglected pathogens.

• 3. To help early-career researcher members progress their careers.

VALIDATE addresses these aims by increasing information dissemination across: (1) our focus pathogens; (2) species (vaccine target, reservoir and model species; with a One Health perspective); (3) continents, countries and research groups; and (4) disciplines. Membership is free and open to anyone working on any research area that will feed into accelerating vaccine development for the four focus pathogens, as well as interested members of the public. An underlying principle of VALIDATE is that by working together, we can advance research more quickly and effectively.

2.2 VALIDATE’s Focus Pathogens

VALIDATE provides a unique opportunity to bring together individuals working on four complex neglected intracellular pathogens. These four pathogens were chosen because they share a common lifestyle as pathogens of macrophages, induce similar end-stage pathologies (e.g. granulomatous inflammation, tissue remodelling) and alter host immune and metabolic responses. By exploiting their synergies, similarities and differences, we aim to expedite vaccine development for each pathogen.

2.2.1 Tuberculosis (TB)

TB is primarily a disease of the respiratory system (although it can also affect other parts of the body) caused predominantly by bacteria from the Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M. tb) complex. It affects humans, cattle and many wildlife species including badgers, white-tailed deer, possums, African buffalo, lions, rhinoceros and elephants. In 2020, TB caused disease in 10 million people, with 1.5 million people killed [1]. One quarter of the world’s population is latently infected with TB, with a 10% lifetime risk of progression to active disease. This risk is higher in those with concurrent HIV infection, despite widespread use of antiretroviral therapy. TB is the second leading cause of death from an infectious disease (besides COVID-19; prior to 2020, TB was the leading infectious killer for many years) [1]. The current TB vaccine, Bacillus Calmette-Guérin (BCG), was first developed 100 years ago and has highly variable efficacy, particularly against lung disease in LMICs [2]. Ending the TB epidemic by 2030 is one of the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, but while infection rates were dropping gradually year on year (prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, during which they have increased), an efficacious vaccine will be necessary if this goal is to be achieved [3]. Of increasing urgency is the fact that antibiotic-resistant TB strains are on the rise. An effective TB vaccine would reduce the global need for antibiotic treatment, reducing antimicrobial resistance, and be preventative against both drug-sensitive and drug-resistant strains of M. tb. Additionally, TB treatment is long (6–24 months depending on drug sensitivity) and expensive and has a significant impact on the economic development of afflicted countries and their inhabitants. The average total cost to a patient with TB in an LMIC of US $538-1268 is equivalent to a year’s wages [4], while almost one in two TB-affected households face costs higher than 20% of their household income [1].

Bovine TB, caused by the very closely related Mycobacterium bovis, is a zoonotic pathogen with substantial impacts on animal and human health, as well as economic productivity, where ‘much of our understanding of transmission mechanisms, diagnostics, control, and multi-host infection systems remains opaque’ [5]. It is estimated that >50 million cattle are infected worldwide, costing US$3 billion annually [6]. Currently, the BCG vaccine cannot be used in cattle due to the inability of routine diagnostic tests to differentiate between infected and vaccinated animals. Wildlife act as a disease reservoir, with both cattle and many wildlife species being destroyed in unsuccessful attempts to control the disease. Alternative control measures, including a vaccine, are urgently needed [7].

2.2.2 Leishmaniasis

Leishmaniases are caused by around 20 protozoan Leishmania species transmitted by sandfly bites and affect both humans and dogs as well as around 68 other mammalian species [8]. Three main forms of leishmaniasis occur—visceral, cutaneous and mucocutaneous. Ninety-eight countries are considered endemic for leishmaniasis, with over 1 billion people at risk and around 12 million people infected at any one time [8]. A small proportion of those infected go on to develop disease with 700,000–1,000,000 human cases of leishmaniasis occurring annually, causing 20,000–40,000 deaths per year as well as disfigurement and disability [9, 10]. Poverty increases the risk for leishmaniasis, and the WHO classes leishmaniasis as a neglected tropical disease (NTD). Leishmaniasis has economic implications for countries and individuals affected due to treatment costs, income loss due to illness and death of a family’s wage earner [11]. In India, treatment costs were found to be 1.2–1.4 times annual per capita income [12].

Canine leishmaniasis is a potential zoonotic infection that results in thousands of dogs being culled every year. Diagnostics in dogs have limited sensitivity. While some therapeutic vaccines exist, there is no efficacious preventative vaccine [8].

2.2.3 Melioidosis

Melioidosis is caused by the bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei and is mainly found in the tropical climates (in the soil) of Southeast Asia and Northern Australia. Cases are also found in the Indian subcontinent, Sri Lanka and China, with sporadic cases found in Central/South America and Africa. It is likely the disease is underreported due to its non-specific symptoms and lack of awareness [13]. There are an estimated 165,000 cases annually and 89,000 deaths; in some areas melioidosis has a death rate of over 40% [14]. A 2019 review set the global burden of melioidosis at 4.6 million DALYs (84.3 per 100,000 people) and recommended that WHO add the disease to their NTD list [15]. Melioidosis infection often requires intensive care treatment, and drug therapy takes 3–6 months and involves antibiotics to which resistance can develop. Both these factors can inflict a heavy financial burden on sufferers [15]. B. pseudomallei has been recognised as a potential bioterrorist threat, as prior bioweapon release has utilised closely related diseases causing significant mortality and sickness and because B. pseudomallei is readily found in soil [16].

2.2.4 Leprosy (Hansen’s Disease)

Other members of the Mycobacterium family aside from M. tb also cause significant disease in humans. M. leprae causes leprosy, with ~200,000 new cases annually in 118 countries: 79% of cases occur in 3 countries, namely, Brazil, India and Indonesia. Leprosy can be treated with antibiotics, but, if untreated, it can cause nerve damage, blindness and limb disfiguration and loss [17]. In many parts of the world, suffering from leprosy also leads to stigma and discrimination. Leprosy is a listed WHO NTD, with the 2021–2030 Global Strategy calling for an effective vaccine as a key part of the roadmap to elimination [18]. As M. leprae is closely related to M. tb, as well as to other pathogenic mycobacteria, research findings can have useful implications for other species of Mycobacteria, and vaccines may provide cross-protection, depending on the antigen(s) used.

These four intracellular pathogens are adept at evading the host immune response, and the precise nature of protective immunity is, yet, ill-defined. Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Mycobacterium leprae have co-existed with humans for millenia, and their persistence as pathogens of global importance is testament to their ability both to evade host immunity and to cause disease. For all these pathogens, development of efficacious vaccines is challenging. However, vaccines remain one of the most important public health resources. They were estimated to save two to three million lives each year—a figure taken before the COVID-19 pandemic’s global vaccination programme—and save millions more people from the long-term consequences of diseases such as pneumonia, measles and polio [19]. The only human infectious disease ever eradicated, smallpox, was eliminated via a global vaccination programme; eradication of smallpox is estimated to have saved 150–200 million lives since 1977 [20]. Vaccines are the most cost-effective way to control infectious diseases, with significant health, economic and community benefits [21, 22]. The Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) estimates that from 2011 to 2030, immunisation could prevent, just in the 94 lowest-income countries, illness costs of $1510 billion [23]. Yet, none of VALIDATE’s target pathogens have universally efficacious vaccines; VALIDATE and its members want to change this.

2.3 VALIDATE: Outputs and Successes

2.3.1 Pump-Priming Funding

VALIDATE has held five rounds of pump-priming funding, where members could apply to receive up to £50,000 for a 12-month project. Projects in rounds 1–4 had to be collaborative, with involvement from members from at least 2 different institutes. Projects in round 5 had to focus on tuberculosis and be led by an early-career researcher (ECR) member. Applications were competitively reviewed by the VALIDATE Network Management Board (NMB). The projects had to be scientifically excellent and advance vaccine development for VALIDATE’s focus pathogens and/or produce pilot data for future external grant applications.

Thirty projects have been funded, involving members from 17 countries (Fig. 2.2). Eighteen (60%) of the projects were led by an ECR, with the expectation that this will be beneficial to their careers and provide data which could support future follow-on grant applications to other funding bodies. Seven (23%) were led by LMIC members, with 16 (53%) involving an LMIC member (as lead or collaborator). Fourteen (47%) projects were led by members identifying as female. Twelve of the 13 projects running in 2019 were significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and laboratory shutdowns across the world and required no-cost extensions and/or scope alterations. Project details and outcomes can be found at www.validate-network.org/funded-validate-projects.

Fig. 2.2

VALIDATE-funded pump-priming projects and training grants. (Map created with MapChart (https://www.mapchart.net), which is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Creative Commons License (CC BY-SA))

2.3.2 Fellowships

VALIDATE awarded two Fellowships in 2018, providing salary and consumables to two ECR post-doctoral members, outlined below. These awards were originally for 2 years but were extended into 2021 when the COVID-19 pandemic affected the Fellows’ projects. The VALIDATE Fellows joined the VALIDATE NMB for the term of their Fellowship, which they felt offered them invaluable insight into what fundable grant applications look like, what reviewers look for and how to review grant applications, as well as invaluable exposure to senior scientists and their discussions.

2.3.2.1 Dr. Jomien Mouton, Stellenbosch University (South Africa): Identification of Latency Associated Antigens and Biosignatures Associated with Mycobacterium tuberculosis

Dr. Mouton’s Fellowship enabled her to secure full employment at Stellenbosch University, something which is not usual for post-doctoral researchers, as well as a South African National Research Foundation (NRF) Y rating. This allowed her to become the primary supervisor for students and to apply for funding calls, including being a co-investigator for a successful application to acquire an Amnis Imagestream Imaging Flow Cytometer as the first of its kind in Africa (ZAR12,000,000). She was also a co-investigator on a further VALIDATE pump-priming project, with a new collaborator found via VALIDATE. Her Fellowship supported her through a period of maternity leave, which would otherwise have been unpaid, and enabled her to establish three new international collaborations and publish four papers (with an additional two in preparation)—including her first senior author paper. She says, ‘Receiving the VALIDATE Fellowship has had a tremendous impact on my research and career. Apart from being appointed as a researcher and being able to supervise my own students, I have had the opportunity to serve on the VALIDATE Management Board and expand my network by meeting new people at the annual meeting. The funding I have received as part of my Fellowship has made research possible that has not yet been done in South Africa, to our knowledge. This has a large impact on capacity development and knowledge transfer in scarce skills and allows us to be able to use this data to apply for follow-on funding’.

2.3.2.2 Dr. Rachel Tanner, University of Oxford (UK): Characterising the BCG-Induced Antibody Response to Inform the Design of Improved Vaccines Against M. tuberculosis, M. leprae and M. bovis

Dr. Tanner’s Fellowship enabled her to form eight new collaborations (one of which was with an industrial partner) and publish two publications with two further manuscripts in preparation. She was elected a Research Fellow at Wolfson College, University of Oxford, and presented work from this Fellowship at interview. She joined the British Society of Immunology (BSI) Vaccine Affinity Group (BSI-VAG) committee, which came about because of networking during the VALIDATE 2019 Annual Meeting. Dr. Tanner also participated in a number of outreach efforts, including having her video clips used in the YouTube ‘Life in a Day’ movie directed by Ridley Scott and Kevin McDonald that premiered at Sundance Film Festival, taking part in the BSI’s ‘A day in the life of a vaccine researcher’ blog, and being interviewed for a 500 Women Scientists article, as well as co-presenting a ‘VALIDATE for Schools’ virtual talk. In 2019, Dr. Tanner was awarded the UK ‘Women of the Future’ Award for Science. She says, ‘This award has had a significant impact on my research, allowing me the freedom to pursue my own interests and expand my skills and expertise… [it] has also been invaluable to applications for follow-on grants, as I am able to demonstrate increasing independence and a track record of securing funding, as well as providing preliminary data for the basis of these proposals’.

In early 2022 VALIDATE awarded two further 2-year Fellowships to ECRs based in South Africa and Mexico:

• Dr. Nastassja Kriel, Stellenbosch University—Identifying persister Mycobacterium tuberculosis biosignatures.

• Dr. Cristian Segura-Cerda, CIATEJ—Evaluation of the efficacy of BCGΔBCG1419c vaccination plus a booster of EsxG/EsxH-derived peptides to prevent tuberculosis progression caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis strains prevalent in Latin America.

Details on all four Fellowships can be found at www.validate-network.org/funded-validate-projects.

2.3.3 Training Grants

Post-doctoral ECR members could apply for training grants of up to £3000 (increased to £3500 in 2022) to participate in a training opportunity that would contribute to their career development. This included opportunities such as attending a course or workshop, participating in a laboratory exchange visit (to gain knowledge and expertise that they could take back to their home institute) or (for LMIC members) presenting at a conference.

VALIDATE has awarded 34 training grants to members in 17 countries, as well as funding 3 LMIC-student places on the Jenner Institute’s 2019 Vaccinology in Africa course and 2 LMIC places on University of Cape Town’s 2019 Flow Cytometry workshop. A total of 59% (20) of training grant awardees were female, and 56% (19) were based in LMICs. Four awardees withdrew after award, and, unfortunately, the COVID-19 pandemic stopped 10 from attending their training. Training grants are listed at www.validate-network.org/funded-validate-projects.

One example of a successful training grant was Dr. Eduardo Ramos Sanchez, a post-doctoral researcher studying leishmaniasis at the University of Sao Paulo (USP), Brazil. He had a 1-month laboratory exchange to the McShane group at Oxford University, UK, where he was trained on the mycobacterial growth inhibition assay (MGIA) and other assays used in this research group, and the visit provided opportunities for both sides to consider future TB-leishmaniasis collaborative work. On returning to Brazil, Dr. Ramos Sanchez’s home laboratory has since obtained a licence to work with mycobacteria and can now work with two different experimental models.

Other examples include Dr. Shraddha Siwakoti (B.P. Koirala Institute of Health Sciences (BPKIHS), Nepal) who visited the Cooper laboratory at University of Leicester, UK, to discuss the tools and activities required to set up a new immunology laboratory at her home institute; Dr. Isadora Lima (FIOCRUZ, Brazil) visited the University of Surrey and Public Health England, UK, to learn laser capture microdissection, which she now teaches as a short course at her home institute and has developed protocols for use in her home laboratory; and Farah Isse Mumin (Red Sea University, Somalia) who was funded to attend a VALIDATE co-hosted vaccinology workshop that improved his undergraduate teaching and connected him to researchers in nearby Ethiopia whom he has since visited.

2.3.4 Mentoring

VALIDATE has held 5 mentoring calls, setting up 24 mentee-mentor relationships (18 for LMIC ECRs) pairing VALIDATE post-doctoral ECR and senior Principal Investigator members. These mentoring pairings are for 12 months, providing career and research support and guidance for our ECR members. Mentoring can be an invaluable career advancement tool, and these are a few of the comments received from VALIDATE’s mentees:

[mentor] encouraged me to attend meetings and conferences... to expand my network and discuss my research. Over the last year I have taken on the role of President of the Researcher Association to support and represent contract researchers across [institute] at various levels (academic board, research strategy committee, REF committee) - this position has increased my visibility and collegiate skills. I have also submitted two grants with [mentor]’s encouragement. I have found the whole experience hugely beneficial and would highly recommend to others to seek a mentor at every stage in their career…I only wish I had sought a mentor sooner.

As an early career researcher, having a mentor was of great value to expand my viewpoints and consider new ways of approaching my research... He is guiding me through the development of my post doc, not only by giving me training in techniques… but also providing new inputs to our project... Having the opportunity to be in touch with a researcher in my area, but from a different country and culture, gave me a completely new perspective and broadened my horizons.

[mentor] helped me to identify some of the things I need to do to help push my career forward. Since then, I started pushing for opportunities that can help boost my profile, and extend my network. She supported me with a number of grant applications where references are required.

I believe that the mentoring meeting helped give me the confidence to apply for and be successful in achieving a more senior post of senior lecturer at [institute] as well as to establish a number of new collaborative relationships with staff there. This led to the submission of a Newton Institutional Links application, on which I was lead applicant.

2.3.5 ECR Career Development Network

VALIDATE recognises the challenges faced by post-doctoral and early PI researchers trying to progress their careers. As part of VALIDATE’s aim to encourage and support career progression amongst members, especially ECRs, and to help address inequality in scientific career progression, we created a 2-year-long ECR Career Development Network (ECDN) programme for members identifying as female. We ran an open call for members to join the ECDN and received 13 applicants from 11 countries (7 from LMIC members). Starting in February 2022, with a kick-off meeting (virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic), the network aims to form an engaged and connected sub-network of ECRs wanting to develop their careers and to help support and accelerate their careers by providing them with peer support, networking opportunities, group mentoring, accountability groups, one-to-one coaching, introductions to senior scientist role models and monthly virtual talks and workshops. VALIDATE also funded the ECDN members’ attendance at the 2022 Global Forum on TB Vaccines.

2.3.6 Information Dissemination

VALIDATE hosts a website (www.validate-network.org) that aims to be a ‘one-stop-shop’ for members where all relevant funding calls, training and job opportunities, events, publications and news are highlighted so that members can easily keep up to date and hear about useful opportunities. The VALIDATE Twitter account (@NetworkVALIDATE) also helps members keep up to date on news in the field and has >1000 followers. VALIDATE members receive a quarterly newsletter, and connecting with each other is promoted via the VALIDATE LinkedIn profile as well as a searchable members’ directory on the VALIDATE website. Video content, including recordings of public talks, is available via VALIDATE’s YouTube channel, while the VALIDATE Microsoft Teams Hub contains recordings of members-only events as well as shared standard operating procedures (SOPs) and protocols for use by members. VALIDATE runs a multitude of communications activities, both on our website and via national media, celebrating World Days such as World NTD day and events like the BCG vaccine centenary in 2021 and highlighting and celebrating members’ research.

2.3.7 Events

VALIDATE hosted in-person annual meetings in 2017, 2018 and 2019, with a virtual meeting in 2021 (due to the COVID-19 pandemic). Twenty-six travel scholarships were awarded to LMIC members to support their attendance in the in-person meetings (Fig. 2.3).

Fig. 2.3

VALIDATE members at the 2019 Annual Meeting

Thirteen virtual seminars highlighting 20 researchers’ work, including our industry partners, have been streamed online, with recordings available to members. VALIDATE has also hosted a number of in-person and virtual ECR workshops for career support and progression (see www.validate-network.org/workshops), a co-hosted Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF) Vaccinology Workshop (2018, Bangkok), a virtual Collaboration Workshop for members in 2020 and a Melioidosis Vaccine Symposium ‘Moving from animal models to man’ in 2019.

All the VALIDATE events have helped boost dissemination of information between our members, including unpublished research results, helped stimulate and nurture new collaborations, as well as provided training and support for our ECR members via the ECR workshops.

A particular success story arose from initial discussions on the lack of melioidosis vaccine candidates in clinical trials at the 2018 Annual Meeting, a situation the TB vaccine field was at in 2001. We held a Melioidosis Symposium in 2019 because of those discussions, where melioidosis vaccine researchers and experienced TB vaccine clinical trial researchers were brought together to discuss the roadmap to first-in-man melioidosis vaccine clinical trials and the lessons learned in the TB field when moving vaccine candidates from animals to humans. A new UK-USA-Thailand collaboration was formed, linking lab-based vaccine developers with clinical trial researchers and facilities, and this collaboration was successfully awarded £3.2M MRC Biomedical Catalyst: Developmental Pathway Funding Scheme (DPFS) funding (plus further Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA) funding) for the first human clinical trial of a melioidosis vaccine. VALIDATE has, therefore, directly contributed to the development of a candidate melioidosis vaccine.

2.3.8 Outreach

VALIDATE initiated a BCG100 Programme in 2021, celebrating the centenary of the first use of BCG, including two keynote talks by four world-leading scientists in the TB vaccine field that were live-streamed (with recordings available via the VALIDATE YouTube channel) so that all members, as well as members of the public, could attend. One hundred and fifty people attended the first talk (‘BCG Then and Now’), with 78 (including 42 non-members) from 22 countries (15 LMIC) attending the second (‘TB and the use of BCG in Animals: Does it matter to people?’). As part of an Enriching Engagement award from Wellcome, VALIDATE created 3 computer games aiming to engage and educate 11–14-year-olds around the creation of the BCG vaccine, the challenges of vaccine delivery and the workings of the human immune system. The games are free for use by teachers and researchers to promote discussion and learning in the classroom and at outreach events via www.validate-network.org/bcg-adventures. Within the first 6 months of release, >27,000 people from 99 countries have engaged with the games (Fig. 2.4).

Fig. 2.4

BCG adventure games

A ‘VALIDATE for Schools’ programme has seen 3 online talks by 5 of our researchers (2 senior, 3 post-doctoral, based in the UK and South Africa) reach over 300 school children and engage them in discussions around vaccines, immunology and careers in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM). Given during the COVID pandemic, these talks saw the children asking lots of questions, and VALIDATE received excellent feedback from their teachers. VALIDATE has also organised and coordinated work experience visits by school students to the Jenner Institute laboratories at the University of Oxford.

A video ‘explainer’ about leprosy was made in collaboration with VALIDATE member Dr. Hua Wang and has had 3700 views via the VALIDATE YouTube channel (www.youtube.com/channel/UC4jnwrHLkvK-xJjYJYpnYog). A similar video was made for leishmaniasis as part of World NTD Day 2022.

In 2018, the VALIDATE Directors and Network Manager met with two UK Members of Parliament to discuss the importance of vaccines and of the UN General Assembly 2018 High Level Meeting on TB. This led to one of the MPs contacting the International Development Minister to urge high-level UK attendance. Prof McShane was also interviewed as part of research for the 2021 ‘Advances in vaccine technologies’ UK Parliament POSTnote. Additionally, welcome addresses were given at the VALIDATE 2021 Annual Meeting (held online across 3 days in 3 different time zones to maximise the ability of members to attend) by The Newton Fund India, the UK High Commission in South Africa and the British Ambassador to Colombia.

2.3.9 Data Sharing

From 2018 VALIDATE had a dedicated bioinformatician available to support members and a data-sharing portal to facilitate members making comparisons of similar data sets, both published and unpublished, across species/country/research group/trials, aiming to find lessons to learn from the data already available through our members and advance the field. Interestingly, neither of these resources were much utilised by VALIDATE members so they were discontinued in 2020, although available data sets are listed on the VALIDATE website (www.validate-network.org/data-sharing).

2.3.10 Equipment Exchange

To capacity build, and save on landfill, VALIDATE runs an equipment exchange scheme where we help coordinate donations of surplus equipment from one member laboratory to another member laboratory who can use it. LMIC members get priority on donated items, which have ranged from large laboratory equipment all the way down to 51 laboratory coats. In 2018, for example, a Bactec MGIT machine was donated to researchers at the MRC/Uganda Virus Research Institute and London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Uganda Research Institute by Animal and Plant Health Agency (APHA)/University of Oxford. VALIDATE coordinated the donation and shipment, contributing 50% of the shipping costs. Now in Uganda, the MGIT has greatly improved the unit’s capacity to perform mycobacterial culture for TB diagnosis and experimental assays such as the MGIA. This has led to several new collaboration opportunities for the Uganda team, including participating in a multi-centre TB vaccine trial. Additionally, members of staff and postgraduate students are trained to use the machine and can use it for their research projects.

2.4 The Future of VALIDATE

While the true economic and human cost of the COVID-19 pandemic has yet to be accurately determined, it has severely impacted the public health landscape. The pandemic is exerting lasting effects on treatment and prevention programmes for communicable diseases, such as those caused by VALIDATE’s focus pathogens, particularly in LMICs [24].The pandemic, however, has also highlighted the relief that effective vaccines can bring and has emphasised the need for continued vaccine development efforts.

VALIDATE’s original Medical Research Council funding ends on 31 March 2023. Excitingly, VALIDATE was awarded a further $1.5M award from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF), which enables VALIDATE to continue through to 2024. This funding has also led to a new partnership with the Collaboration for TB Vaccine Discovery (CTVD), with interactions including joint grant calls for both CTVD and VALIDATE members.

The BMGF funding is solely for TB research, so the VALIDATE Management Team are actively seeking matched funding to continue to facilitate research to accelerate vaccine development for our other three focus pathogens. The COVID-19 pandemic has shown us all how crucial vaccines are in the fight against infectious disease, and, as VALIDATE’s support in accelerating the first human trial of a melioidosis vaccine shows, we can advance vaccine development more quickly when researchers working on pathogens that have similarities in their infectious behaviour learn from each other’s experience and research findings. It is important, therefore, that VALIDATE’s remit of increasing communication and information dissemination across our four focus pathogens continues, until we have efficacious vaccines for these neglected infectious diseases.