Welcome to the website of ResNet NPND!
On April 28, 2011, natural products scientists from various countries met at the University of Münster and, after three days of intense discussions and scientific exchange, committed themselves to spend a major part of their efforts in joining our forces in this network to fight against Neglected Diseases with Natural Products. Ever since, the network has produced an impressive scientific output. A plethora of new compounds with activity against Neglected Diseases were discovered and investigated in detail. Countless new projects were initiated, which are documented in about 170 joint scientific publications (last counted in May 2021).
Looking back today means to cordially thank all those who have contributed their efforts to the network's activities over the years and still continue to do so!
Looking back also means looking forward. A network that has been so successful over more than a decade is likely to survive another decade or hopefully even longer, and its success is likely to grow. Thus, we may all look forward into a bright future!
Green medicine for the poorest of the poor!
About one billion people world-wide, mainly in tropical regions, suffer from at least one of 21 life-threatening diseases currently classified by WHO as “Neglected Tropical Diseases” (NTDs). Among these, infections caused by protozoan parasites such as Chagas Disease, Leishmaniasis and African Sleeping Sickness are largely unknown to the public in high-income countries. Malaria, even though not classified by WHO as NTD, is a protozoan disease representing a major cause of deaths in many tropical regions. Mycetoma is a largely overlooked disfiguring disease caused by fungal and/or bacterial pathogens and affecting populations in underdeveloped regions across the tropics. There is an urgent need to develop new safe and affordable drugs against these diseases.
Natural products obtained from plants, fungi or microorganisms and even from small animals (such as insects and arachnids) play an outstanding role in drug research, especially against infectious diseases. Nature has created an immeasurable wealth of molecules that can be used successfully to fight even the most serious diseases and a large number of natural products with activity against parasites causing NTDs is already known. But more coordinated effort of scientists is needed in order to fully utilize this enormous potential.
The Research Network Natural Products against Neglected Diseases (ResNet NPND) has been established in April 2011 as a multilateral and international research initiative entirely dedicated to fight the global health threat arising from NTDs with compounds derived from natural, renewable and sustainable sources.
Our network comprises natural products- and medicinal chemists, parasitologists and specialists in anti-protozoan drug screening as well as biochemists and molecular biologists, who dedicate their coordinated and synergistic efforts to the search for new active natural products against Chagas-disease, Sleeping Sickness, Leishmaniasis, Malaria and Mycetoma. In Dec. 2018, the members have decided to widen the network's portfolio to all NTDs.
This website serves to introduce the network and its members, show the activities and publications and latest achievements in the quest for new, safe and affordable drugs against NTDs
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