“Accelerating HIV CURE research in EU”

H2020 MSCA-RISE-2015

October 16th 2017 testimony

EU Infectious Diseases Clinicians

• Pr Stéphane De Wit (CHU, BE)

• Dr Patrick Mallon (MMUH, IE)

IO Academic Researcher

• Dr Alessandro Marcello (ICGEB, IT)

CONSORTIUM

EU Academic Researchers

• Dr Carine Van Lint (ULB, BE)

• Dr Virginie Gautier (UCD, IE)

• Pr Olivier Rohr (U de S, FR)

TC Academic Researcher

• Dr Nicolas Chaumont (U de M, CAN)

7 Partners in 5 countries

. Built upon dynamic collaborations between academic researchers and infectious diseases clinicians. . Merges our demonstrated strengths and expertise in many different fields of biology and health (molecular virology, proteomic and genomic screening, primary and patients-cell base assays, targeted drug screening, established patients cohorts, clinical management trials, and clinical practice). . Follows our common engagement in developing innovative alternatives to HIV Cure approaches. . Strengthen interaction between academic and non-academic sectors and between Europe and countries outside Europe

CONSORTIUM

• Promoting transfer of knowledge between countries and sectors.

• Developing a shared culture of Research and Innovation.

• Research program executed by: – Exchange of “staff” from the consortium (1 month to 1 year,

research students, researchers, research support staff)

– Networking activities

• Expected impact: – Build/enhance new and existing networks of international and

intersectoral cooperation

H2020-MSCA-RISE-2015

HIV CURE Research

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HIV CURE STRATEGY

Eliminate/reduce the latent HIV reservoirs

• Sterilizing Cure:

– Elimination of all the HIV infected cells

• Functional Cure or Remission: – Reduction of the latent viral reservoir size

– Long-term viral suppression in the absence of cART (below detection level)

– reduce risk of transmission

EU4HIVCURE Research

Programme

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EXPERIENCE FROM RISE CONSORTIUM

Identify collaborators and establish the consortium • Start from existing partnerships and then extend the network to new

collaborators -> serious advantage. • Trust, reliability, motivation and commitments from collaborators are

key parameters for the success of the consortium. • Identify complementarity of expertise and balance between academic

and non academic to enable the secondments to take place. • The larger the consortium is, the more complex it is to put it in place -> 5-6 collaborators is recommended • Verify on the EU portal that all the institutions are registered (PIC

number) and their academic and non academic status (easy with academic can be problematic with non academic as not as familiar with the all process).

EXPERIENCE FROM RISE GRANT WRITING

Before the process

• Meet several times or organise Skype meetings to agree on research program and objectives but also on how the secondments are going to take place. Important also to identify the Work Package leaders.

• Contact and get help from the NPC (in our case located at the University of Dublin), research office, and a professional grant writer if required (funding is usually available for the latter).

EXPERIENCE FROM RISE GRANT WRITING

During the process

• Get support and feedback from the NPC, research office, and a professional grant writer. Ask colleagues to review draft.

• Use skills set available in the consortium for diagrams and graphics. Part 1. Excellence. This scientific section is easy because area of expertise (more difficult section) arise with the impact and implementation section.

– Ask for specific information from collaborators including scientific information about their area of expertise then assemble and organise.

– Start with a strong statement/paragraph resuming the overall program. Have clear research objectives.

– Describe the state of the Art and include collaborators key references. – Highlight how the complementarity, multidisciplinary of the consortium and how it

is unique in term of mix of expertise, novelty and innovation to address the research problem and meet the objectives. Insist on knowledge exchange, training and also include networking and public engagement activities.

EXPERIENCE FROM RISE GRANT WRITING

During the process

Part 2. Impact.

- Difficult to write so do not leave it to the end, should be written first.

- The main impact is focused on training and career development, knowledge exchange and communication and of course scientific achievements.

Part 3. Implementation.

- Need to be practical and concrete.

- Give detailed and specific methodology on how you are going to implement the objectives (scientific but also in term of knowledge exchange and training and communication)

EXPERIENCE FROM RISE MANAGEMENT

Grant signature agreement: need online access to the portal for signature.

• The portal can be a bit difficult to navigate for the first time for the unaccustomed collaborators so the coordinator need to provide help to comply with the deadline.

• Make sure that the collaborators are fully registered on the portal (PIC)

MANAGEMENT

• Get support from the project officer who knows the system very well and always ready to help.

• Ensure good communication with project officer, involve them from the beginning when difficulties arise.

• The budget is easy to manage because it is itemised around the person/month.

• Make sure to update information on the portal (secondments deliverables)

• Difficulty to find staff to commit to the secondments.

• For secondment outside of Europe the 2000 euros might not be sufficient and you might need to find additional funding to cover for that.

EXPERIENCE FROM RISE MANAGEMENT

OVERALL POSITIVE Experience

• Provide a good first experience of H2020 funding structure

• Easy to write and implement compared to other schemes

• Good stepping-stone to access other funding either nationally or international

• Flexibility

• Great opportunity to develop network of collaborators

• Great opportunity to develop and implement collaborative projects

• Brilliant experience for staff to get access to other labs, training and expertise.

• Opportunity to identify staff for new post-doc positions

LIMITATIONS

• Not enough funds to run project on its own: need on going additional funding as it does not fund staff and has limited consumables money.

• Difficulty to identify and involve non-academic partners.

• Rules of secondments are strict and can sometime limits the project.

• No funding to organise annual symposium with all the members of each lab

Discovery Translation Evaluation

HIV POST-TRANSCRIPTIONAL SILENCING Defect in viral RNAs nuclear export

Leader: Alessandro Marcello (ICGEB, IT)

PROVIRUS EPIGENETIC CONTROL Role of DNA and Histone methylation

Leader: Carine Van Lint (UBL, BE)

HOST-VIRUS INTERFACE INTERSECTION OF HIV WITH

CELLULAR PATHWAYS Leader: Virginie Gautier (UCD, IE)

PRE-CLINICAL VALIDATION OF HIV REACTIVATION TREATMENTS

HIV patients Recruitment

Clinical assessment HIV reservoir size

Ex-vivo reactivation studies: • Synergistic Drug Combinations • Test selected new class of drugs Leader: Stéphane de Wit (CHU, BE)

Paddy Mallon (MMUH, IE)

WP

1

WP

2

WP

3

WP

4

WP

5/6

HIV LATENT CELLULAR RESERVOIRS CTIP2-driven molecular networks

CD4 Tcm VS Microglial cells Leader: Olivier Rohr (UNISTRA, FR)

Secondments between academic

and clinical research centres

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UCD (IE)

ULB (BE)

UNISTRA (FR)

MMUH (IE)

ACADEMIC (MS)

NON-ACADEMIC (MS)

ICG

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(IT)

CHU (BE)

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Intern

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Secondments (2017)

CHU, BE Valentin Le Douce

(UCD, IE) Fadoua Daoud,

Amina Aït-Ammar (UNISTRA, FR)

MMUH, IE Kevin Maerens, Roxane Verdikt

(ULB, BE) Olivier ROHR

(UNISTRA, FR)

Communication/Networking/ training activities

“ “

– 29th January 2016 (Irish Liaison office (EI), Sablon Tower, Brussels, BE)

– Participants:

• Virginie Gautier (UCD,IE)

• Carine Van Lint (ULB, BE) and Sophie Bouchat, Benoit Van Driessche, Anna Kula, Roxane Verdikt.

• Alessandro Marcello (ICGBE, IT) and Ambra Sarraccino

• Stéphane de Wit (CHU, BE) and Coca Necsoi

• Olivier Rohr (UNISTRA, FR)

• Paddy Mallon (MMUH, IE)

Initial meeting of Scientific Steering Committee

– 16th September 2016 (Irish Liaison office (EI), Sablon Tower, Brussels, BE)

– Participants: • Virginie Gautier (UCD,IE)

• Carine Van Lint (ULB, BE) and Sophie Bouchat, Benoit Van Driessche.

• Stéphane de Wit (CHU, BE)

• Olivier Rohr (UNISTRA, FR)

• Paddy Mallon (MMUH, IE) by phone

• Corentin Chaboud (BIOASTER, FR)

• Laurent Beloeil (BIOASTER, FR)

Second meeting of Scientific Steering Committee

Symposium

5th and 6th of October 2016 University College Dublin

IRELAND

36 Participants 6 thematic sessions: (1) Host response and HIV persistence; (2) Opportunities for HIV research in Horizon 2020, (3) Poster Sessions; (4) Host-Virus interface in HIV Latency and Persistence; (5) Latency Reversing Strategies; (6) Strategies for HIV remission.

6 Invited Speakers

• SESSION 1: HOST RESPONSES AND HIV PERSISTENCE GUEST LECTURE: Alan Landay (Rush University Medical Centre, Chicago, USA)

“Manipulating the Microbiome to Optimize HIV Cure Strategies”

• SESSION 2: OPPORTUNITIES FOR HIV RESEARCH IN HORIZON 2020 Yann Le Duff (Centre for AIDS Reagents (CFAR), NIBSC, UK)

“The EURIPRED project” Kay Duggan-Walls (EU Programmes officer and National Contact Point)

“EU funding Opportunities in Health” Máire Coyle (UCD Research Programme Officer)

“Excellent Science: People Programmes”

• PLENARY LECTURE SPONSORED BY THE FRENCH EMBASSY IN DUBLIN

Christine Rouzioux (Necker Hospital , Paris, France).

“Dynamics of HIV reservoirs in infected patients, markers in HIV cure studies”

• SESSION 5: STRATEGIES FOR HIV CURE AND REMISSION

GUEST LECTURE: Asier Saez Cirion (Pasteur Institute, Paris, France).

“T cell metabolism and control of HIV infection.”

OUTREACH Activities “ “

• OUTREACH Activities:

“Let’s talk about HIV and AIDS”

“Let’s talk about HIV and AIDS”

Themes covered: • HIV/AIDS epidemiology • Transmission • Diagnosis and Treatment • HIV CURE research • Living positively with HIV • HIV in developing countries • HIV in Ireland • Awareness, Misconceptions and Prevention

Funding Opportunities “ “

• May 2016 Gileads HIV CURE letter of Intend – Title: Exploring molecular and host-pathogen

interactions to uncover the next great innovation in HIV CURE Research”

– Coordinator: Virginie Gautier

• October 2016 H2020-SC1-2016-2017 (Personalised Medicine). Topic: SC1-PM-02-2017 – Title: “BIOmarkers to PREdict DIsease REmission in

HIV : A new stratification of HIV-1 positive patients” (BIOPREDIREHIV)

– Coordinator: Carine Van Lint

Proposals submitted