The gnatwork: building capacity for research on neglected tropical vectors

该网络应对的媒介传播疾病挑战是开发多学科技术，可用于三个被忽视的媒介群体的研究：叮咬蚊、沙蝇和黑蝇。这些集团负责将重要的国际病原体传播到世界各地，并对接受英国官方发展援助的国家造成不成比例的影响。目前，由于各种各样的原因，研究蚊子、沙蝇和黑蝇的群体之间几乎不存在交流，主要与每个群体传播的病原体类型和致病宿主的不同有关。然而，在对所有这些食血昆虫的研究中，唯一最重要的瓶颈是它们的身体太小。这对从行为生态学到基因组学等广泛的研究领域施加了限制，而且往往由于受试者被认为存在困难而无法招募新的工作人员。资金的波动是病原体研究的一个内在因素，再加上资金的波动，这对留住大量研究人员构成了重大挑战，特别是在医疗和兽医优先事项迅速变化的国家。通过将研究与发展相关的两个国家的工作人员聚集在一起，我们可以在所有三个媒介群体的翻译技术方面取得重大进展，并为这些群体建立一个更具弹性的研究基地。网络管理委员会包括公认和公认的叮咬蚊、沙蝇和黑蝇方面的专家，以及具有平等性别平衡的早期职业研究人员。我们最初将把该项目的基地设在孟加拉国和巴西，那里现有的工人社区建立在所有三个群体的基础上，这些群体仍然完全隔绝。因此，我们为巴西和孟加拉国招聘了管理领导，他们将与主任和联席主任合作，通过项目会议将工人聚集在一起。在这些会议上，我们将利用讲习班，以务实的方式培训学生和早期职业研究人员，以建立足够的专业知识基线，以改进工作做法。我们认为可以显著改进的领域是实验设计、昆虫动物群的分类和实际的实地考察项目。我们还侧重于在群体之间有相似之处的流行病学技术，包括在空间和时间层面上分析监测数据。作为网络的一部分，我们还将在两次通话中资助六个高达100k GB的CATALYST项目。这些项目的目的将是为可在三个传播组中使用并可能推广到其他传播组的技术提供经过验证的方法。在这些项目期间，将明确强调向尽可能广泛的社区提供数据，目的是支持更大的协作应用程序。将要求每项研究至少有一定比例在巴西或孟加拉国或这两个国家进行。发展南南关系将是该项目的一个特点，因为两国研究这些病媒社区的社区目前几乎没有合作渠道，在实施实地研究方面也面临类似的后勤问题。将鼓励在这些研究项目中使用学生和早期职业研究人员，每个人都将在网络网站上有很高的知名度，以提高职业前景。

The vector-borne disease challenge this network addresses is to develop multidisciplinary techniques that can be used in research across three neglected vector groups: biting midges, sandflies and blackflies. These groups are responsible for the transmission of internationally important pathogens worldwide and disproportionately impact upon countries receiving official development assistance from the UK. At present, communication between communities studying midges, sandflies and blackflies is almost non-existent for a wide variety of reasons, mostly associated with differences in the type of pathogens each group transmits and the host in which they cause disease. The single most important bottleneck shared in research of all these haematophagous insects, however, is their small body size. This imposes constraints on a vast range of research areas from behavioural ecology to genomics and often precludes recruitment of new workers due to their perceived difficulty as subjects. When combined with fluctuations in funding that are an intrinsic factor in pathogen research this creates a significant challenge in retaining a critical mass of researchers, particularly in countries where medical and veterinary priorities change rapidly. By bringing together workers in two countries where research is relevant to development, we can make significant progress in translating techniques across all three vector groups and build a more resilient research base for these groups.The network management board contains acknowledged and established experts on biting midges, sandflies and blackflies and early career researchers with an equal gender balance. We will initially base the project in Bangladesh and Brazil where there are existing communities of workers on all three groups that remain entirely disconnected. We have therefore recruited management leads for both Brazil and Bangladesh who will work with the Director and co-Director to bring together workers through project meetings. At these meetings, we will use workshops to train students and early career researchers with a pragmatic approach in establishing a sufficient baseline of expertise to improve working practices. Areas that we feel can be significantly improved are in experimental design, taxonomy of insect fauna and practical fieldwork projects. We have also focussed on epidemiological techniques that share similarities between the groups including the analysis of surveillance data on spatial and temporal levels. As part of the network, we will also fund six catalyst projects of up to £100k across two calls. The aim of these projects will be to provide validated approaches for techniques that can be used across the three vector groups and potentially extended to others. There will be a clear emphasis during these projects in providing data quickly to as broad a proportion of the community as possible as the aim is to underpin larger collaborative applications. There will be a requirement for at least a proportion of each study to be conducted in either Brazil, or Bangladesh, or both countries. The development of south-south relationships will be a feature of the project as communities studying these vector communities in the two countries have few current lines of collaboration and face similar logistical issues in implementing research in the field. The use of students and early career researchers in these research projects will be encouraged and each will have a high profile on the network website to enhance career prospects.