2019 General Assembly, Tokyo

Major research funders will attend the 2019 GloPID-R General Assembly that will be held in Tokyo, Japan on May 13-14, 2019

President of AMED, Makoto Suematsu, and Yazdan Yazdanpanah, GloPID-R Chair and Director of Aviesan Institute of Immunology, Inflammation, Infectiology, and Microbiology will be co-hosting the event with over half of the GloPID-R members in attendance.

Dr Yazdanpanah said: “Funding research is at the core of the GloPID-R alliance. At this meeting, members will focus on research preparedness and response together with other stakeholders involved in this crucial fight against infectious diseases to save lives and avert large scale crises.”

Some notable speakers at this year’s event include Jean-Jacques Muyembe-Tamfum, General Director of the Democratic Republic of the Congo National Institute for Biomedical Research; Marion Koopmans, Head of the Department of Virology at the Erasmus MC; Thomas Jaenisch, Senior Scientist and Medical Doctor at Heidelberg University Hospital, Laura Merson, IDDO Associate director at the Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health.

The topics will include an evaluation of recent outbreaks, including the Ebola outbreak in DRC, Lassa fever outbreak in Nigeria, and Chikungunya. Data sharing during public emergencies is one of GloPID-R’s priorities and to support this approach AMED’s developed its motto: “No share, no budget.”

Dr. Suematsu, President of AMED, said: “Without global data sharing, human beings will no longer survive against infectious diseases. Super-aging countries like Japan are especially concerned about the increased impact viruses have on those with compromised immunities like newborn babies and the elderly. The only way to tackle this complex problem is by sharing experiences and data beyond our national borders.”

He went on to say: “AMED would not only empower a global alliance for data sharing in infectious disease sciences but also share the same idea for other medical sciences such as rare diseases and human genetics. We invite others in the infectious disease community to share the ‘No share, no budget’ policy to save the world”

Tying together these important themes, Dr. Suematsu said: “In this context, we are delighted to host the GloPID-R 2019 General Assembly. This annual meeting, which assembles the world’s major research funders, will be held at the beginning of our national new era “REIWA,” galvanizing a global alliance to fight against infectious disease outbreaks and to ultimately benefit global health.”

Other presentations will be on:

• Japan-China-Korea cooperation in Severe fever with thrombocytopenia syndrome virus (SFTS) research
• Favipiravir: development of the experimental antiviral drug against RNA viruses
• Regional cooperation with WHO and clinical trial networks

GloPID-R members will meet on May 14 to set the upcoming year’s strategy and decide on priority initiatives.

Also connected to the general assembly are two side events. The first one to occur on May 13 will be on data sharing and the theme will be data sharing in diseases such as Ebola or Zika. The second one is on the Funders’ Forum for Social Sciences Research on Infectious Disease and will take place on May 14 in the afternoon. Some of the focuses for this event will be to talk about research gaps, identifying research funding priorities, and defining the role in coordinating research investments.

More information will be released in the months following the meeting.