Grand Challenges Annual Meeting (GCAM) 2023

In early October 2023, Simon attended the Grand Challenges Annual Meeting (GCAM) organised by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and held in Dakar, Senegal. Under the overall theme of "Science Saves Lives," this year's GCAM explored how the global health community can expand the frontiers of science and innovation to save and improve lives. Over four days, the meeting featured a set of scientific tracks, three mainstage plenary sessions, roundtable discussions, poster sessions, and side meetings focused on how collaboration, scientists and leaders across the R&D space can accelerate innovation for impact.

Simon was invited to present a talk entitled “Identification of potent monoclonal antibodies for prevention of P. falciparum malaria: Targeting the merozoite” in a session on “Malaria: Innovation for Eradication / Vaccine and Biologics Innovations for Global Health” chaired by Kassoum Kayentao, University of Bamako (USTTB) and Jacqueline Kirchner, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. Other speakers included Kassoum Kayentao, Scott Miller, Ian Wilson and Matthijs Jore whose talks spanned monoclonal antibody work for the other lifecycle stages of P. falciparum malaria.

The meeting was a fantastic opportunity to catch-up with collaborators and colleagues from around the world, and to visit our great collaborators Amy Bei and Laty Gaye Thiam at The Institut Pasteur de Dakar(IPD).