Henri Vial - Coordinator of Cluster 3

The Laboratory "Dynamics of Membrane Interactions in Normal and Pathologic Cells" UMR 5235 is jointly associated with the French National Research Centre (CNRS) and the University of Montpellier II. The prime aim of our research is to gain insight into key membrane events and focus on the passage of the molecular scale on a functional scale in parasite-host interactions. Part of the research is geared towards solving human health and veterinary pathology issues, especially via antimalarial chemotherapy. The main goal is to develop a new antimalarial whose action mechanism differs from currently marketed products (4 patented drug classes).The programme involves medicinal chemistry, elucidation of the mechanism of action, pharmacokinetic characteristics and preliminary tests of toxicity. Transition to human is under way with one compound now evaluated in human clinical trial phase 1 in collaboration with an industrial partner (4 patents). The laboratory is a member of the European network of excellence BioMalPar and of the European Integrated project AntiMal. H. Vial is the scientific Director of Malpar Training, an ESR Marie Curie Action dedicated to create by education and training a cadre of young, highly professional, creative and broad-minded researchers on Malaria through collaborative projects.

The antimalarial programmes are performed by a consortium of academic laboratories through a multidisciplinary and complementary partnership including medicinal chemists, molecular biologists, biochemists, pharmacologists, toxicologists, parasitologists and malaria specialists. The Laboratory has long term collaboration with teams of chemistry, the laboratory of Clinical Pharmacokinetics and European leader groups involved in antimalarial strategies. The current programmes benefits from strong industry links for the development and registration of antimalarial drugs. This partnership provides the expertise to guide the investigation and to ensure that the industrial expertise is available at critical decision points. One clinical candidate has moved progressively to the clinical development in humans. Sanofi Aventis, through a collaborative programme, perform the clinical development of our compounds and registration of antimalarial drugs.