EKUT is one of Europe's oldest universities, with key strengths in science and life sciences. Within the Faculty of Medicine, the Institute for Tropical Medicine, Travel Medicine and Human Parasitology (ITM) has been an established centre of excellence since 2007. The ITM specialises in infectious and tropical diseases and human parasitosis, operating a tropical medicine and travel medicine outpatient clinic, conducting research and teaching. The ITM also has a dedicated Clinical Trials Platform (CTP), partly funded by the German Center for Infection Research (DZIF). This platform was specially developed to conduct Phase I-IV clinical trials to International Council on Harmonization and Good Clinical Practice (ICH-GCP) standards. Clinical trials are also being run with a partner in Gabon, the Center of Medical Research Lambaréné (CERMEL), the former Medical Research Unit of the Albert Schweitzer Hospital. Its collective expertise lies in integrating basic biological research and applied clinical research. EKUT’s main task will be to plan and carry out the clinical trial part of the project (Phase I ).
Partners
Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen (EKUT), Germany
Team members
Professor Peter Kremsner is a world leader in research on parasitic infections and is the Director of EKUT's ITM. He also set up CERMEL in 1992 and was its Director from 1992 till 2011. Having published over 500 peer-reviewed research articles, his interests include tropical medicine, human parasitology, immunology, vaccinology and travel medicine. He conducts a unique combination of basic research in the field of malaria, bacterial and viral infections, allergies and worm infections as well as clinical studies, including on drugs and vaccines, from Phases I to IV.
Professor Kremsner will oversee the Phase I studies conducted at EKUT.
PD Dr. med. Meral Esen is an expert in the field of clinical trials, investigating the safety and immunogenicity of promising new pharmaceutical product and vaccine candidates. She is the head of the Clinical Trial Platform at the Institute for Tropical Medicine in Tübingen, hosting clinical trials of all phases. Numerous international research projects worldwide have been initiated by her, funded by both academia and private benefactors. Meral Esen is also a founding member and co-leader of the focus group "Global Health" in Tübingen and co-speaker of the "German Alliance for Global Health Research“(GLOHRA).
PD Dr. med. Meral Esen is the Principal Investigator for the phase I clinical trial TT4CL.
Carlos Lamsfus-Calle is a pharmacist by training and has been actively participating in the conduction of various clinical trials at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Tübingen for the last decade. He has acquired extensive knowledge in all aspects of clinical trials before joining the project management team as a clinical trial manager.
Carlos Lamsfus-Calle is one of the two project managers responsible for the conduction of the phase I clinical trial on-site at ITM.
Marcel Spring has a background in medical technologies (B.Sc.) and medical radiation sciences (M. Sc.). He joined the project management team in 2021 as a clinical trial manager, following his active participation in the clinical trials conducted at the ITM during the Covid-19 pandemic. He is responsible for various research projects funded by national and European benefactors
Marcel Spring is one of the two project managers responsible for the conduction of the phase I clinical trial on-site at ITM.
