Partner 19 Fondation Mérieux (FMER)
Fondation Mérieux established in 1967, is an independent family foundation, recognized as a state approved charity and has a long history in global health with the mission to strengthen local capacities in developing countries to reduce the impact of infectious diseases on vulnerable population (see www.fondation-merieux.org). Beneficiary organisations are local governments (Ministries of Health), health professionals (hospitals, universities, research laboratories) and vulnerable population especially women and children. Fondation Mérieux implements its mission via two complementary programmes focusing on biomedical laboratory systems and biomedical research.
In order to strengthen infectious disease research capacity in low income countries and help them developing solutions adapted to their local context, Fondation Mérieux set up in 2008 an international North-South-network called GABRIEL (Global Approach to Biological Research, Infectious diseases and Epidemics in Low income countries), which is coordinated by the Emerging Pathogens Laboratory (LPE, Fondation Mérieux) in Lyon, France. The GABRIEL network (http://.gabriel-network.org) is composed by several research laboratories from developing, emerging and developed countries from Europe, Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Caribbean and the Middle East (Bangladesh, Brazil, Cambodia, Cameroon, France, Georgia, Haiti, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Lebanon, Madagascar, Mali, Mongolia, , Paraguay, and People’s Republic of China, Ukraine). These research laboratories are either National Public Health Laboratories or research laboratories from local NGOs. Their main role is to implement research projects on infectious diseases, including surveillance studies in collaboration with local hospitals, and to share research results within the scientific community and decision makers. GABRIEL’s core aims are (i) to improve the control, prevention, and treatment of infectious diseases by conducting epidemiological studies through local partnerships; (ii) to develop and provide new laboratory tests for the surveillance of pathogens in developing countries; (iii) to support the development of capacities that help developing countries to rapidly identify and characterize newly circulating pathogens, such as emerging, mutant, or resistant strains; (iv) to reinforce the skills of local scientists.
Principle Investigator: Hubert Endtz,
hubert.endtz@fondation-merieux.org