DNDi is pleased to announce its 2025 Projects of the Year, which recognize DNDi teams and partners for outstanding progress in pre-clinical and clinical research. Nominated by the DNDi Scientific Advisory Committee and selected by the DNDi Executive Board, the 2025 awards recognize two projects from among more than 40 in DNDi’s R&D portfolio.
Partners and staff collaborating on the 2025 Projects of the Year were celebrated during a dedicated session of the 45th meeting of the DNDi Scientific Advisory Committee on 3 October.
‘By developing a suitable tool for monitoring disease progress and response to treatment for Chagas disease and advancing the clinical development of a promising treatment candidate for river blindness, our 2025 projects of the year represent potentially game-changing advances in the fight against these neglected tropical diseases,’ said Dr Laurent Fraisse, Director of R&D, DNDi. ‘These projects prove the tremendous power of partnerships and sustained investment in medical innovation to ensure all people can benefit from the fruits of scientific progress.’
2025 Project of the Year in pre-clinical research: Biomarkers for Chagas disease – a boost for R&D into new treatments for a silent killer
For decades, a major challenge in drug development for Chagas disease has been the lack of analytical tools suitable for monitoring disease progression and response to treatment. There is no single reliable test of cure that can be used to monitor the efficacy of a treatment in adult chronic Chagas disease patients in a timely manner. The lack of validated early markers of parasitological cure has posed a significant hurdle for the development and regulatory approval of new drugs.
DNDi partnered with InfYnity Biomarkers to develop a test able to detect a response to treatment more quickly than conventional techniques – potentially helping to accelerate development and facilitate registration of new treatments. The InfYinity-developed assay called MultiCruzi can detect 15 different antibodies specific to the Trypanosoma cruzi parasite in patients’ blood.
In 2024, results from tests of the MultiCruzi assay were published in Nature Communications – for the first time demonstrating a decline in T. cruzi antibodies in patients treated for Chagas after 6 and 12 months of follow-up in adult Chagas patients in the BENDITA clinical trial. Analysis of the same samples, conducted at CONICET in Argentina for both the BENDITA and E1224 clinical trials, was completed, confirming the robustness and reproducibility of the MultiCruzi assay results.
Additional studies are underway to further assess the potential of the MultiCruzi assay as a marker for parasitological cure in adult Chagas patients treated with antiparasitic drugs. A collaborative research project with Novartis to identify potential host biomarkers using proteomics and MultiCruzi platforms has also been launched, and a review of the current biomarkers landscape for Chagas disease is ongoing.
The positive results from tests of the MultiCruzi assay could boost drug development for Chagas disease, paving the way for new, better treatments that are suitable for all patients, including women who are pregnant or breastfeeding.
We are grateful to our partners involved in this critical work towards a test of cure, including in France: InfYnity Biomarkers; in Belgium: Department of Public Health and Primary Care, KU Leuven Campus Kulak Kortrijk; in Argentina: Parasitology Service, ‘Ricardo Gutierrez’ Children’s Hospital and Multidisciplinary Institute for Research in Paediatric Pathologies, CONICET-GCBA; in Brazil: Laboratory of Parasitology, School of Medicine, University of São Paulo; and Novartis.
Chagas disease, also known as American trypanosomiasis, is caused by the T. cruzi parasite, mainly spread by the bite of ‘kissing bugs’. It can also be passed from mother to child during pregnancy and childbirth. In Latin America, Chagas causes more deaths than any other parasitic disease. It often goes unnoticed and undiagnosed for years and can eventually cause irreversible damage to the heart and other vital organs. Although they constitute the best option for patients and access must be improved, current treatments for Chagas were discovered over 50 years ago, must be taken for eight weeks, have frequent and sometimes serious side effects, and are not suitable for women who are – or could become – pregnant.
Learn more about Chagas disease biomarkers:
- Our project page
- ‘Drug discovery explained: Chagas – How to prove treatments work?
- Video: ‘Chagas disease: How to prove treatments work?’
2025 Project of the Year in clinical research: Emodepside for river blindness – a potential treatment to end cycles of disability and poverty
Emodepside originated from the Japanese pharmaceutical company Astellas and was later developed and commercialized by Bayer Animal Health as an anthelmintic veterinary drug for cats and dogs. In 2015, DNDi, in collaboration with Bayer AG, began evaluating emodepside as a potential anti-parasitic macrofilaricidal treatment for river blindness in humans.
Following successful completion of first-in-human Phase I studies of emodepside in healthy volunteers, a Phase II proof-of-concept clinical trial was initiated in 2021 to investigate its safety and efficacy for people living with river blindness. Part 1 of the Phase II trial was completed in 2024 at sites in Ghana, in partnership with the University of Health and Allied Sciences, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), in partnership with the National Programme for the Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases through Preventive Chemotherapy and the National Biomedical Research Institute (INRB).
Initial findings showed a favourable safety profile and initial proof of concept. Results from a separate Phase IIb trial conducted by partner Swiss TPH testing emodepside as a treatment for soil-transmitted helminth infections – including whipworms, hookworms, and roundworms – confirmed the drug’s strong efficacy and good safety profile.
Should these findings be confirmed in part 2 of the Phase II study and Phase III studies to follow, emodepside could bring about a revolution in the treatment of river blindness and other parasitic worm infections – helping to end cycles of infection, illness, and disability that have plagued affected communities for centuries.
We are grateful to our partners involved in progressing the clinical evaluation of emodepside, in particular, in the DRC: National Programme for the Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases through Preventive Chemotherapy, National Biomedical Research Institute, and our two clinical sites at Kimpese Reference Health Centre and Masimanimba General Reference Hospital; in Ghana: University of Health and Allied Sciences; in the US: Washington University School of Medicine; and in Germany: Institute of Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology, University Hospital Bonn, and Bayer Healthcare AG.
Most common in tropical and subtropical regions, river blindness, lymphatic filariasis, schistosomiasis, and other helminth diseases caused by parasitic worms affect millions of people worldwide. They take their greatest toll on people who are already vulnerable due to poverty, poor sanitation and housing, and malnutrition – and can cause significant illness, long-term disability and, in severe cases, death. There are no cures for neglected parasitic worm diseases. Current strategies to control their spread mostly rely on the mass administration of anthelminthic drugs that must be administered to nearly all people in endemic areas for five to ten consecutive years. People living in remote and insecure settings, young children, and pregnant women often go untreated – allowing cycles of infection, illness, and disability to continue.
