Team:AFCM-Egypt/Integrated
Professor Andrea Savarino
Prof. Andrea Savarino is a physician and specialist in infectious diseases. He is the director of clinical development of Auranofin and Arsenic trioxide at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità and is a guest scientist at the University of Heidelberg in Germany.
We contacted him early during the design phase of our project to utilize his expertise and recommendations with regards to the immunological aspects of our project. We held a video conference with him and demonstrated our pipeline of how we rationalized our choice of target antigens and all the T-cell modifications we had brainstormed.
He recommended that we introduce eosinophil-stimulating/recruiting factors to our design in order to combat ongoing schistosoma infections in patients with schistomiasis-associated bladder cancer. His recommendation led to us researching various methods to achieve that purpose and we settled on the use of fourth generation CAR design as it involves IL-18 which has been linked to ROS production, a documented mechanism in the immune system’s defense against schistosomal ova.
Professor Wagida A. Anwar
Dr Anwar is a member of the WHO Global Coordination Mechanism on the Prevention and Control of NCDs. She is a Professor at Department of Community, Environmental and Occupational Medicine; Faculty of Medicine, Ain Shams University, Egypt. She is the General Coordinator of Health System Improvement Programs, Nationally and internationally at Ministry of Health (MOH).
She is a member of several National Committee such as the Supreme Health Council, MOH, the Supreme Committee for Drafting the Comprehensive Social Health Insurance Law, MOH the National Committee of Cancer Prevention and Control, MOH and the National Committee for Prevention of Hepatitis. She has a role in encouraging research at the Egyptian Academy of Scientific Research and Technology (ASRT). She is a member of the National Committee of Toxicology and the National Council for Environment Research.
We contacted Prof. Anwar for her vast expertise in drafting and designing health system improvement programs and campaigns. We discussed with her the scope of our project and what we were targeting. She strongly commended our choice of community problems to tackle including bladder cancer and schistosomiasis, two of our nation’s most persistent problems. We brainstormed with her our plan for the implementation of a well-designed, multi-faceted campaign to target risk factors for both diseases. With her guidance, we decided upon selecting the governorate of Beni-Suef and its neighboring villages as an exemplary underprivileged and high-risk community for both diseases. We put together an awareness lecture regarding smoking (as a risk factor for cancer development), schistosomiasis and bladder cancer under her review.
Prof. Azza El-Adawy
Prof. Azza El-Adawy is a Professor of Medical Parasitology, Parasitology department- Faculty of Medicine- Cairo University. She was the head of the Parasitology Department at Cairo University during the period from 2011-2013. She is currently the head of the Parasitology Department at AFCM. We consulted with her regarding bilharziasis and the parasite causing the disease. We asked regarding efficient methods for control of the disease spread at the parasite level. She discussed with us the various techniques that could be employed to eliminate the parasite and prevent its spread.
One of these techniques was mollusciding, the termination of the parasite’s snail-host, by the release of chemicals such as niclosamide into fresh water streams. She also talked with us about the fact that the use of personal protective equipment by farmers during their labor is one of the largely neglected prevention strategies against schistosomiasis. We took her guidance into consideration as we formulated a plan for contacting local plants and factories in Beni-Suef.
Cancer-free community
During the development of our human practices agenda, we selected Beni-Suef as the location for the pilot implementation of our health improvement program targeting schistosomiasis and bladder cancer. Beni-Suef’s geographical location and nature make it at an especially high risk for both diseases. Our program consisted of health promotion lectures (check them out in our Education & Public Engagement page) as well as a collaboration with two factories located in Beni-Suef.
We contacted Al-Ansar Plast, a plastic and protective packaging manufacturer based in Beni-Suef. Team members gave them presentations regarding our project and the importance of PPE in prevention and control of the spread of bilharziasis among farmers who are at constant risk of contracting the disease.
We also talked with Dr. Azmy Youssef (Head of the Board of Directors) about the importance of maintaining a smoke-free environment for the health of the plant workers. Our presentation was a success as they agreed to sign with us a memorandum of understanding depicting the start of new production line of PPE. Our team members were there to receive the prototypes and demonstrate their proper usage to the first farmer user of the Tesmant village (in the vicinity of Beni-Suef).
The second factory we contacted was Nice for Specialized Chemicals, we had a conference call with Mr. Fares Badr, Manager of investment, to discuss the possibility of production of niclosamide within their plant. We are please to declare that they have agreed to include the chemical within their line of products as well as declare their factory a smoke-free zone.
