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The Patient Advisory Board takes a great leap forward in raising awareness about RSV

A key aspect to prevent the infection caused by RSV (Respiratory Syncytial Virus) and its sequels amongst young babies is making parents more aware of its existence. This last year, RESCEU’s Patient Advisory Board (PAB) has made a great leap forward by designing and implementing a plan aimed at promoting awareness about this common and contagious virus which can become life-threatening for young infants and children and older adults.
Nicole Derksen, chair of the PAB, shared during RESCEU’s 4th the progress made by her team. Comprehensive and lay content has been created for the RSV Patient Network web section. This site is a first port of call, where parents can learn some important facts about RSV, read personal stories and get to know the professionals’ perspectives and their work to prevent infections caused by this virus. The launch of this website coincided with RSV Awareness Week which took place between the 5th and 9th of November last year and reached over 50,000 people. A video with the testimonial of Jade, who lost a baby to RSV kicked off this campaign and was viewed over 25,000 times as Nicole Derksen explained during her intervention.
The RSV Patient Network has also reinforced its presence in social media and regularly shares news and interesting updates in Twitter; Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram @RSVPatientNetwork.
Besides raising awareness, the PAB also supports the RESCEU project by bringing in patients’ feedback and input and by disseminating results to the general public.
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ISAG encourages RESCEU to export its framework to fight vaccine preventable diseases such as COVID-19

The International Scientific Advisory Group (ISAGs) played a primary role, at RESCEU 4th GAM. Precisely, one of the main responsibilities of this body of experts on scientific and technical matters relevant to the project is to provide advice to the General Assembly and the Steering Committee and support their decision making.

In this year’s General Assembly Meeting, the ISAG was represented by its Chair,  Larry Anderson (Emory University), Mark A. Miller (National Institutes of Health) and  Pasi Penttinen (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control – ECDC). After attending all presentations and scientific debates that took place in the two-half day sessions, they offered their feedback on the annual progress made by the different work packages.

Besides commending the project’s leadership and its substantial achievements in an exceptional context, they referred to the new scenario created by the COVID-19 emergency. From their point of view, RESCEU is a shiny example of what can be done to address other vaccine preventable diseases, including COVID-19. In this sense, they considered that RESCEU’s activities have set the standard in terms of generating the data and literature review that is relevant mainly for the National Immunisation Technical Advisory Groups (NITAGs). In fact, NITAGs were identified as a key audience for the RESCEU project.

They also encouraged the RESCEU Consortium to face the next scientific challenges formulated by the project itself, explore ways to collaborate and share data with other groups and, finally contribute to find a response in COVID-19 related studies.

Harish Naïr, RESCEU project coordinator, confirmed that the Consortium plans to collaborate with ECDC and NIGA going forward. “We will work together with policy makers to shape the agenda for the introduction of RSV immunization and raise awareness about this disease” he stated.

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Early career researchers take the floor at RESCEU’s virtual 4th GAM

RSV research has a bright future judging by the good work and implication shown by the early career researchers during RESCEU’s virtual 4th General Assembly Meeting (GAM). Indeed, this year’s edition wanted to bring into focus the contribution young scientists are making to the project which intends to build knowledge on RSV for the future development of effective RSV preventative options and therapeutics.

Early career researchers involved in RESCEU were given the opportunity to present the progress that has been made in their respective work packages. Ting Shi and You Li (both research fellows at the Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh) presented a systematic literature review on RSV and the current estimates of burden of disease; Deniz Öner (Jannsen Pharmaceutica), Joseph McGinley and Gu-Lung Lin (University of Oxford ) disclosed their findings on presumed risk factors and biomarkers for RSV-related severe disease and related sequelae. As for Xiao Li (University of Antwerp), she focused on retrospective resource use analyses from existing databases and networks whilst Joanne Wildenbeest (University Medical Center Utrecht) offered a presentation on prospective data collection. In fact, assembling existing RSV data to inform policy‐making and regulatory decisions is one of RESCEU’s main objectives.

“I was very pleased to present the updates for our WP” explained Xiao Li. “It also helped me to co-ordinate and communicate more with our WP and other WPs” she added. For Gu-Lung Lin this first virtual meeting was a success. “It gave us the chance to receive updates from each WP in the RESCEU consortium during the coronavirus pandemic”.
In this sense, Joseph McGinley also highlighted the fact that RESCEU virtual GAM “showed that science need not be constrained by the pandemic”. For McGinley, the event proved how the RESCEU consortium continues to push the boundaries of its understanding of RSV disease.
In similar terms summarized Ting Shi her experience: “The RESCEU virtual meeting provided the most updated and comprehensive research on RSV disease. It was a huge success, especially under the challenge of COVID-19 pandemic”.Although the meeting was initially planned to take place face to face in Edinburgh, it was moved online once the pandemic broke out. This new format did not prevent knowledge sharing and science debate. “Although it was a virtual meeting, I felt very engaged and the synergy was very positive” observed Li.
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RESCEU’s GAM goes virtual to continue fostering scientific debate around RSV

RESCEU celebrated its 4th General Assembly Meeting last 17th and 18th of June in exceptional circumstances due to COVID-19.  

The plans to congregate RESCEU’s Consortium members in the historical city of Edinburg to celebrate the 4th General Assembly Meeting (GAM) in a three-day event were cut short by COVID-19. Given this year’s challenging circumstances, knowledge sharing, and scientific debate were taken online. Nearly 90 participants gathered virtually to assess the achievements made so far by the project, discuss key topics, and set the agenda for the upcoming months.

The sessions were hosted and moderated by Harish Nair (Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh) and Clarisse Demont (Sanofi Pasteur), coordinator and project leader respectively of the RESCEU project, who repeatedly gave the floor to early careers researchers. Indeed, young scientists had a prominent role during the two half-day online event celebrated on 17th and 18th of June. Ting Shi and You Li (both research fellows at the Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh), Deniz Öner (Jannsen Pharmaceutica), Joseph McGinley and Gu-Lung Lin (University of Oxford), Xiao Li (University of Antwerp), and Joanne Wildenbeest (University Medical Center Utrecht) presented the results of their respective work packages which focus largely in assembling existing RSV data with a view to inform policy‐making and regulatory decisions within the European Union.

Harry Campbell and You Li (from the Usher Institute, University of Edinburgh) together with Anne Tierlinck (National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in the Netherlands) shared their progress on consolidation of health care systems data which will eventually support widespread cooperation, data sharing and surveillance across Europe.

 

With regards to the development of effective RSV prevention and treatment, Michael Abram (AstraZeneca) referred to the promising results obtained from a primary analysis of the phase 2b study of nirsevimab (MEDI8897). This immunization to prevent RSV is being developed by AstraZeneca in collaboration with Sanofi Pasteur.

The GAM also addressed other topics such as the impact of COVID-19 in RSV research and reviewed the important task carried out by the Patient Advisory Board this last year. As exposed by Nicole Derksen (PAB Coordinator at RESCEU), a substantial effort has been put into raising awareness about RSV, disseminating lay summaries of publications, and incorporating patients’ views to the project and vaccine trial developments.

Experts of the International Scientific Advisory Group (ISAG) also attended this virtual GAM. Larry Anderson (Emory University), Mark Miller (National Institutes of Health) and Pasi Penttinen (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control) agreed on the outstanding progress made by the project in this challenging times and referred to the impact of COVID-19 in respiratory virus surveillance in Europe.

Clarisse Demont and Harish Nair closed the meeting by thanking all participants and members of the Consortium for their contribution and commitment to the fight to prevent RSV.

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RESCEU Mid-Term Review

In February, IMI organised the Mid-Term Review of our project that took place in Brussels. A team of 20 people represented our consortium in front of our Project Officer, Isabella Tamagnini, and three reviewers: Dimitrios Athanasious, Dirk Jochmans and Tanel Tenson. During the meeting, a representative of each work package exposed their achievements and explained the risk circumstances that they have managed during the duration of the project.

In their final summary both the reviewers and our project officer were full of praise for RESCEU both for our scientific achievements, as well as for patient and public engagement and the positive team spirit that was evident to everyone. Of course, not everything is wonderful, and the reviewers have recommendations to make our project better.

Congratulations to the whole Consortium for accomplish this important milestone successfully!

Let’s keep the good work!