Research lines

The group is working in the field of the respiratory infections and tuberculosis, improving the understanding of host-pathogen interactions, and exploring new approaches in diagnosis and therapies.

The scientific challenges and strategic objectives for the next 3 years are described below for each line of research, which will contribute to consolidating excellent research, promoting knowledge transfer and increasing the internationalization of the group.

Active projects

Additional information

Additional noteworthy activities of the research activity that we want to point out are related with Dissemination, Social Impact, Research Transference and Excellence Indicators.

Regarding dissemination, it is important to point out that all the Research Group activities are posted in the web of the institution (www.germanstrias.org), and the twitter, Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn accounts (@Oneandahalf_Lab; @innova4tb). The social networks accounts allow a dissemination of our research results and scientific activities to the Society in a fast and accessible way.

Actions that will have social impact are a priority for our research group. As we have previously explained we lead INNOVA4TB, an H2020 RISE consortium, where 3 partners are from Ukraine and 1 from Moldova. We have also applied to a COST application (ADVANCE-TB consortium) where partners from Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia, North Macedonia, Romania, and even Nigeria are involved. One of the main objectives of these consortiums is to favor the exchanges of staff between institutions, in order to improve their professional careers. This action has a clear social impact, because it improves the quality of the research in all the country partners improve TB control, and helps young scientists and physicians in their career development, especially in Eastern countries and especially in this threatening times.

The group has a pro-active tech transfer behavior. The group has three patents in national phases. Two of them are licensed, and the third is in negotiations with a IVD Company. In all cases the Group has been invited to participate in the co-development of the final product. In one case, one person of the Group was working one full year in the R+D department of the company, and now will be hired for be in charge of the last steps of the market release.

Finally, as indicator of excellent research, to note that the papers published by the group reached more than 1000 citations.

Public engagement in Research and Innovation. The Group is establishing participatory multi-actor dialogues between researchers, policy makers, industry and civil society organizations, NGOs, and citizens in order to define the scientific research priorities.

In 2021 we organized, with the collaboration TB-REP 2.0 a symposium for discussing about the role of the civil society in the TB diagnostic and management. TB-REP 2.0 is a multi-country program covering 11 countries in Eastern Europe region. Representatives of more than 25 small and medium NGOs from Eastern Europe and Euro-Asia countries participated in the event. In the symposium was stated the need of non-invasive methods that provide rapid results are key for reducing the burden of the disease, reduce the stigma that patients suffer, and increase the well-being of the citizens and the society.

The group also participated in 2021 in an international on-line course about Community Engagement in TB Research & Development: Looking for innovations, oriented to civil society that was also organized in collaboration with TB-REP 2.0. The Group discussed with the representatives of the civil society about the preventive therapy of tuberculosis, and the needs of diagnostics and vaccines. These actions contribute to building a more scientifically literate society able to actively participate in and support democratic processes, and science and technology developments. The group plan to continue in contact with the NGOs for involving them in the research strategies of the Group. It is also planned continue with outreach activities. Continuous information will be released from the Group through the social networks (Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram and Facebook), and conventional media (Newspaper, radio and TV).

Enabling easier access to scientific results. The group prioritize the publication of the results in open access, as a core strategy of the Group to improve knowledge communication, making research findings available free of charge for readers, and improving dissemination of the research. On the other hand, the group has a Research Data Management Plan (DMP). The group commits to follow the guidelines as outlined by the EC, Science Europe, and national requirements. We outline handling of research data and the objects on which the data is based, is carefully planned, documented, and described, which will allow the integrity and reproducibility of scientific results. The Data Management follows the FAIR data principles. The group support the development and consolidation of the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) as a web of FAIR data. Data generated is available under the CC BY or CC 0 license. Following current legislation [Regulation (EU) 2016/679 of Parliament European Council and of the Council of April 27, 2016 on Data Protection (RGPD)], all clinical data is treated confidentially. The access to the data is granted only for research purposes. The data is stored in a REDCap (Research Electronic Data Capture) database, deposited in IGTP servers. REDCap is a secure web application for building and managing online surveys and databases.

Take up of gender in R&D content and process. The research group has created an environment that promotes responsible conduct and fosters integrity by individual researchers. Gender policies are established and will continuously monitor structures, processes and procedures, which would: a) Give equal skills to both men and women; b) Encourage respect for everyone, especially women, involved in the research environment; c) Promote productive interactions between all research staff irrespective of gender.

The constitution of the group is almost 50% men (9) and women (11). The gender balance in decision-making is assured, all leaders of the Experimental Research Teams are women; and the 8 of 12 researchers of the Clinical Research Team are also women. The gender issue is also considered in the research design and methodologies. Tuberculosis is affecting a large amount of population, and the incidence in women is increasing, probably associated to other risk factors. Therefore, the group will make all efforts to address this issue.

However, the group will go one step further. The group is going to constitute, in the framework of the INNOVA4TB consortium, the Equal Opportunities Commission (EOC) that will take care of gender balance, but also will work towards the elimination of discrimination on the ground's marital status, pregnancy, breastfeeding, disability, family status and race.

Take up of ethics in R&D content and process: Ethics is an integral part of research from the beginning to the end. Ethical research conduct implies the application of fundamental ethical principles and legislation to scientific research. The group will look after for the avoidance of any breach of research integrity, which means, in particular, avoiding fabrication, falsification, plagiarism or other research misconduct.

We have the ethics approval from the different Ethics Committee institutions participating in all our studies. The group complies with the local statutes and adhere to local ethical guidelines. The projects complies with the WMA Declaration of Helsinki (Fortaleza,2013); the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Dignity of the Human Being with regard to the Application of Biology and Medicine: Convention on Human Rights and Biomedicine (Oviedo, 4 April 1997) (Oviedo Bioethics Convention); the EU Directive 2005/28/EC of 8 April 2005 laying down principles and detailed guidelines for good clinical practice as regards investigational medicinal products for human use as well as the requirements for authorization of the manufacturing or importation of such products (OJ L 91, 9.4.2005, p. 13), the EU Regulation No 536/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council on clinical trials on medicinal products for human use, repealing Directive 2001/20/EC (OJ L 158, 27.5.2014). The Group will also follow the recommendations of the European Textbook on Ethics in Research from the European Commission - EUR 24452 EN - 2010.

Formal and informal science education. Building capacities and developing innovative ways of connecting science to society is one of our priorities. This will help to make science more attractive to young people, increase society's appetite for innovation, and open up further research and innovation activities. In this sense the group has planned the following actions: 1) Press releases to newspapers and feature articles in magazines. 2) Presentation of results and training actions in local TV and radio. 3) Release updated Group information in official webpage (www.germanstrias.org) and social networks (twitter and Facebook). 4) Specific actions in press, and open conferences the World TB Day (24th of March). 5) High school conferences. 6) Participation in the "Open Researcher's Night" and "Science Open Day".

In 2021, the group participated in the project title "European Performing Science Night (EPSN)" lead by la Fundació Èpica La Fura dels Baus, granted by H2020 programme (H2020-MSCA-NIGHT-2020bis). It is an initiative whose main objective is to bring researchers closer to the public and encourage their recognition, their work and the value they bring to society. To carry out these goals, the project proposes different actions that combine science, art and technology. In the first place, EPSN develops a workshop aimed at participating researchers in which, through co-creation methodologies, the generation of synergies between groups and disciplines will be promoted, on the one hand, and communication with the audience, on the other hand. Second, a co-creation workshop aimed at scientists, technologists and artists that will take place from September 13 to 25. This workshop will culminate with a public performance based on the challenges and research raised by the experts participating in the first workshop. Finally, the results obtained during the workshop will be presented in a public session that will include exhibitions, interactive experiences and talks. All this aimed at promoting the values ​​of science, demonstrating the impact and attractiveness of researchers' work to motivate young people to embark on research careers.