Advance the diagnosis, treatment, control, and community engagement of tropical diseases, with a main focus on febrile syndromes such as malaria, trypanosomiasis, and bacterial infections.
2.Improve treatment options by assessing new compounds with novel mechanisms against AMR. (i) In vivo: efficacy clinical trials for malaria (KAF156-Lumefantrine in Mali, triple ACT in Angola with INIS/Oxford). (ii) In vitro: advanced cell culture systems simulating human pharmacokinetics to support pre-clinical drug development and define physiologically aligned resistance models. Additionally, drug-drug interaction studies will be conducted to identify optimal combinations. Mechanistic studies will address resistance to lumefantrine and amodiaquine (with VBD, using animal/in silico models);
3.Strengthen malaria control through population-based studies in São Tomé and Príncipe (with Guinea-Bissau (with Bloodless Bandim Health Project), and the Brazilian Amazon (with INSP), USP/ICB )Research focuses on host–parasite factors sustaining transmission, especially submicroscopic infections, using ultra-sensitive qPCR (with Fiocruz Minas). Additional work includes HLA polymorphisms and haemoglobinopathies, applied to migrant surveillance in Portugal (with PPS cohort). Local elimination efforts include tracking drug resistance phenotypes and genetic markers using next-generation sequencing.
4.Travel medicine: (i) new research on gut microbiome changes in long-term travelers to tropical regions and links to chronic conditions (e.g., diabetes, obesity), exploring causal timelines, resilience, and microbiome based interventions; (ii) studies on imported infections in immune-naïve travelers as sentinels for emerging resistant pathogens (“canary in the mine” effect), reinforcing collaboration with national hospitals toward a CTM/GHTM-centered network; (iii) development of a national travel medicine network and risk assessment model, integrating with the GeoSentinel platform;
5.Mother & child health – addressing bacterial vaginosis via studying efflux in innate/acquired drug resistance of the vaginal microbiome, and assessing vaginal microbiota transplant efficacy vs pharmacological treatments for microbiome restoration;
CTM will continue training health professionals and supporting local expertise in diagnostics and tropical disease management.Two flagship programs—Curso de Formação em Investigação Clínica (FCG) and the 5 month Advanced Course on Clinical Tropical Medicine—train clinicians from the PALOP, Latin America, and Portugal in the management of tropical diseases.
It will continue participating in key networks: WHO (Chagas, HAT), DNDi, PLICIB, EDCTP, WWARN and TropNet.
Activities span multicentric drug trials, WHO initiatives for Chagas control, maternal health studies, malaria fieldwork, and translational research training.
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The TEAM
