UPDATE from CHAARM partners

• 16/11/2011 PICTURES of EACS satellite event "Advances in HIV biomedical prevention research: Why involving the Community is key" are now available HERE
• 20/10/2011 PRESENTATIONS NOW AVAILABLE

  Presentations of speakers at the EACS satellite event "Advances in HIV biomedical prevention research: Why involving the Community is key", Belgrade are NOW AVAILABLE on CHAARM events page

• 13/10/2011 CHAARM project successfully participated to the EACS satellite event  "Advances in HIV biomedical prevention research: Why involving the Community is key".

  Press release, presentations and pictures will be soon available on CHAARM website.

• 12/09/2011 ESOF2012 Career Programme Call. Submit your ideas.

  The Euroscience Open Forum (ESOF 2012), Europe’s largest multi-disciplinary scientific conference, invites young researchers to get involved in its Careers Programme.
  The Careers Programme will be a major aspect of the Forum, which will take place from 11th to 15th July 2012 in Dublin. It will showcase the spectrum of career opportunities available for researchers at all stages of their career and researchers can directly contribute to the programme track by submitting proposals. The focus is the diversity of careers for researchers, including health research, and the challenges in the current climate.

  Submission deadline is the 15th September 2011
  For more information visit www.esof2012.org

• 09/2011 - CHAARM project satellite event at EACS, more details available

CHAARM partners are glad to present the final agenda available in the CHAARM events session and other useful information for researchers and media.

• 08/2011 - CHAARM project will be at EACS

CHAARM partners are working on the preparation of the programme for their participation at the EACS event in Belgrade. CHAARM project has been allocated a slot of 1h30, from 9.30 to 11 on Wednesday, 12th October 2011. The satellite event will evolve will evolve around the ways affected communities can be involved in the design,promotion and implementation of studies of new prevention methods. The latest programme is available online.

• 07/2011 - CHAARM project organising for a Satellite Session at EACS

The satellite session proposed at EACS to present CHAARM project has been accepted and this will be the 1st of 4 CHAARM workhops, to be organised in the next years.

• 06/2011 - CHAARM project aims at EACS

The CHAARM project, through the support of EATG, applied for a satellite event at the 13th European AIDS Conference/EACS

• 05/2011 - CHAARM research advances presentated in peer reviews

The CHAARM partner, Instituto de Salud Carlos III de Madrid, represented by Mr. Jose Alcami MD, has published articles about the CHAARM advances in different peer reviews between June 2010 and April 2011 on Current HIV Research, AIDS Review, European Infectious Disease and Antiviral Research.

Instituto de Salud Carlos III de Madrid, Dr. Alcamí's team, is currently working in the generation of recombinant viruses carrying the envelope from patients.

• 04/2011 – CHAARM partners updates: Planning phase I trails at the University of York

The transfer of materials between Particle Sciences, International Partnerships for Microbicides and Tibotec is in place and the University of York is currently working on the schedule of responsibilities for the proposed phase 1 trials.
Phase 1 logistics have been discussed and the first trials taking place at the University of York site are currently estimated to be starting in May 2012.

• 15/03/2011 - CHAARM Consortium meeting in Camogli, Italy

The 1st year CHAARM consortium meeting was held on the 15-16-17th of March 2011 in the beautiful location of Camogli, Genova (Italy) at the Cenobio dei Dogi Hotel. The meeting gathered around 70 researchers involved in CHAARM project and it represented an important moment in the framework of the project to discuss and share all together the studies carried out in these 12 months activity and the first results achieved after the initial tests phase.

CHAARM consortium can be really considered as an international one: not only partners’ organisation are located in different countries in Europe and outside, including Belgium, UK, Italy, France, Sweden, Spain, The Netherlands, Ukraine, South Africa, USA; but a number of partners’ researchers and PhD students or post docs are originally from China, India, Iran, Africa and Canada.
This confirms the transnational character of the project and the importance that CHAARM initiative is raising worldwide.

The meeting started with an overview of the project coordinator, Prof. Charles Kelly, and then was opened with a presentation of Mr. Ronald Veazey, from the Tulane National Primate Research centre, Division of Comparative pathology Louisiana, Convington. After that, each partner gave a brief overview of the work carried out and highlighted the first results of the studies.
After each presentation there was time for questions and the discussions were very constructive to understand and facilitate the preparation of the next year activity.

All presentations are available in the partners area section and are only for consortium internal use.
The partners are available for further information upon request and welcome interested parties to do that through the online forum on Chaarm website or via email.

• 17/03/2011 - Project partners and Steering Committee meeting decided to be held on the 17th of March in Camogli, Italy

The 2nd year project meeting is organized in Camogli from the 15th until the 17th of March. All partners of CHAARM project will attend the meeting as well as PhD students and postdocs researchers involved in this project phase.
The three days seminar raises last advances of the project in terms of clinical studies like CAPRISA results, preclinical development in the field of microproteins and VHH fusion inhibitors, the efficacy and safe testing of microbicides candidates. It is also an occasion for all partners to meet again after the kick-off meeting held last year in Rome and to discuss about all the work carried out in this first year and future initiatives dealing with the dissemination of the Chaarm project.

In the same occasion, the CHAARM Steering Committee meets again for an update on the 15th of March in Camogli, Italy.
The members of the Steering Committee tackle the approval of changes to work package 8 such as the inclusion of the screening of activity against HSV-2.
The agenda includes as well the preparation for Phase I Clinical Trial, formulation, sites of trial and sponsorship; the discussion about forthcomings venues and meetings of the CHAARM consortium and the organization of trainings and workshops for PhD students.

• 02/2011 - CHAARM project presented in Boston

The CHAARM partner, Instituto de Salud Carlos III de Madrid, represented by Mr. Jose Alcami MD, had the chance to inform about the project at the 18^th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, held in San Francisco from February 27 through March 2, 2011.

• 01/2011 - Development of combination of ARV microbicides

In the light of the results of Caprisa 004 study, which has being conducted to establish whether the vaginal use of tenofovir gel is safe and whether it can prevent sexual transmission of HIV, The University of York, has liaised with other CHAARM project partners including Kings College London, St. George University London, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Particle Sciences and Tibotec during the first year of the project to plan the formulation development of combination of ARV microbicides for clinical studies.

• 12/2010 - CHAARM project launches its first Newsletter

CHAARM project partners are glad to announce the release of the first issue of the CHAARM project Newsletter. Visit the dedicated page on our website.

• 10/2010 CHAARM researchers explain the challenges and first advances of the project

Several scientists involved in the project and the Head of the Unit Health Directorate, DG Research, at the European Commission, Ms Alessandra Martini, were interviewed to have an first approach about the main purpose of the Chaarm project, the importance of microbicides in the HIV researching and the advances reached so far.  

The partners involved in these articles are: Anna Lena Spetz (Center for Infectious Medicine - Karolinska Institutet), Oliver Hartley (University of Genève), Mark Mitchnick (Particle Sciences), Robin Shattock (St. George's, University of London) and Georgina Morris (University of York).

Two articles were produced, The relentless effort to curtail the HIV pandemic continues as researchers aggressively investigate alternative prevention tools, a technical focused in the scientific issues, and Microbicides: A promising strategy to reduce HIV infection, addressed to the overall public.

The relentless effort to curtail the HIV pandemic continues as researchers aggressively investigate alternative prevention tools

Microbicides: A promising strategy to reduce HIV infection

• 07/2010 - CHAARM partners present the research advances in seminars

The CHAARM partner, Instituto de Salud Carlos III de Madrid, represented by Mr. Jose Alcami MD, had the chance to inform about the project at the Symposium on HIV Reservoirs and Eradication Strategies, organised in the framework of the XVIII International AIDS Conference held in Vienna in July 2010.

• 30/06/2010 - CHAARM project hosted by the World Federation of Science Journalists

From the 28th June to the 1st July 2010 in Turin, the training workshop of SjCOOP project - promoted by the World Federation of Science Journalists- hosts many relevant speakers, such as Charles Kelly, the coordinator of the CHAARM project, who speaks about the projects main aspects, the contexts of HIV prevention and treatment, along with its expected impact on African countries.

read more on our press release section

• 09/06/2010 - CHAARM well represented at Microbicide 2010 Conference

The Microbicide 2010 conference held in Pittsburgh, PA, concluded as a ground-breaking commencement for advancing microbicide research and increasing exposure of microbicide research projects.

Highlighted speakers from the CHAARM project included world renowned researcher Dr. Robin Shattock, Professor of Cellular and Molecular infection at St George’s Hospital Medical School in London, UK, who spoke in depth about anti-retroviral treatment in HIV prevention, by focusing on the current state of microbicide research, the role they play in prevention and the intensifying need for them.

Shattock said that they are at a “critical time point” in microbicide research partially because next generation products are ready to be tested in the field, which puts the field in a vulnerable position to prove efficacy in the future trials. However, the most compelling reason is that it is becoming increasingly difficult to sustain funding due to the global economic recession which forces researches to be meticulously selective as far as what they can afford to move forward and which has the best chance of seeing efficacy in the trials.

It is because of these reasons that there is a sense of urgency behind the CHAARM project to provide successful results in their research and testing in the microbicide field. By uniting some of the industry’s top scientists, researchers, universities and other renowned public and private organizations, this large scale EU-funded collaborative venture provides an opportunity to propel discoveries and solutions in the HIV prevention field.

CHAARM was brought to the forefront of the Microbicide 2010 event when a featured presentation spotlighting the activities of CHAARM was given by Professor Charles Lacey, from the University of York, Hull Medical School, UK.  He gave an efficient overview of the project and the specified objectives that the partners hope to achieve; conclusively capturing the crucial role each partner plays in the research project.

The three day long conference allowed CHAARM partners to present their research in the project and lead topics that have never been publicly discussed in such a broad context before. It was officially the first major international presentation for the project; consequently, provoking interest from others in the industry and allowing the partners to discuss new ideas, establish new contacts and openly examine the state of the field. 

• 02/2010 - CHAARM project presented in San Francisco 

The CHAARM partner, Instituto de Salud Carlos III de Madrid, represented by Mr. Jose Alcami MD, had the chance to inform about the project at the 17th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, in San Francisco from February 16th to February 19th, 2010.

• 18/02/2010 CHAARM off to a good start

The project CHAARM was officially launched last week in Rome with an introduction and congratulatory speech made by the European Commission Scientific officer Ms. Alessandra Martini, Unit of Infectious Diseases, DG Research. The project was indeed scored very high in the evaluation summary report and it is the only one funded by the FP7 on microbicides at this stage.

CHAARM project will provide a rational basis for development of new inhibitors in addition to knowledge of the structure of HIV-1, the cause of the majority of HIV infections globally. The project will evaluate for the first time the potential for commercial protease inhibitors to act as HIV microbicides, either singly or in combination. If the concept is valid, the distinct mechanism of microbicidal action will be useful in developing combination microbicides with increased breadth of coverage against divergent HIV-1 strains, reduced probability of transmitting viruses resistant to any single inhibitor, and possible microbicide synergy, creating dose-sparing effects.

The project kick-off meeting was an occasion for all the partners to meet or start again a partnership but especially to begin the core activities of the project which have been outlined and strategically organised according to the workplan structure.

• 9/02/2010 CHAARM kick off meeting planned

CHAARM project Kick off meeting takes place in Rome on the 9th and 10th February 2010.

Some of the 31 partners participating of the project met in Brussels last 13th January in a Steering Committee meeting which set the first work guidelines of this challenging and promising initiative.

The consortium involves internationally recognized research centres in HIV investigation, universities, medical institutions and RTD from 8 European Union countries and Switzerland, Ukraine, South Africa and the United States. All this effort is coordinated by the King’s College London as a continuation of the successful results of EMPRO (European Microbicides project) FP6 project.

The potential of CHAARM research and its experienced consortium will place European researchers at the forefront of microbicide development. CHAARM work programme includes training workshops on microbicide research for PhD students.

• 11/01/2010 CHAARM project begins

CHAARM project (Combined Highly Active Anti-Retroviral Microbicides) started on the 1st of January 2010, and will run until December 2014 for 60 months. The project aims to further develop the research on microbides as a promising system to reduce a person's risk of HIV infection.

In the HIV prevention field microbicides are compounds or substances that could be used vaginally or rectally to reduce a person's risk of HIV infection and possibly other sexually transmitted infections. Even if condoms remain the most effective way of stopping sexually transmitted HIV many people do not have the power to avoid sexual contact with partners who may be infected. Microbicides have the potential to empower many individuals to protect themselves against HIV.

CHAARM consortium is composed of 31 organisations from 8 European Union countries and Switzerland, Ukraine, South Africa and the United States. Partners involve internationally recognized research centres in HIV investigation, universities, medical institutions and RTD experienced on the field. A number of these organizations have collaborated previously as part of the EMPRO (European Microbicides project) or TrIoH (Targeting Replication and Integration of HIV) FP6 projects and are currently involved in the Europrise network or Thinc project (Targeting HIV Integration Co-factors, targeting cellular proteins during nuclear import or integration of HIV). The project therefore follows a collaborative strategy reinforcing the need for a coherent, multi-disciplinary approach to maximize efforts in developing effective HIV microbicide products.

The potential of the research that will be carried out will place European researchers at the forefront of microbicide development. CHAARM work programme includes training workshops on microbicide research for PhD students.