TBVI organises meetings to bring together researchers, developers, policy makers, funders and other experts from different relevant disciplines, to exchange knowledge and to stimulate innovative approaches in TB vaccine R&D.
Knowledge exchange meetings encourage and enable scientists and researchers to bring forward their innovative ideas, concepts, technologies and strategies for a creative “bottom up” approach to vaccine- and biomarker discovery and development. This often leads to new collaborations and new initiatives for projects. TBVI constantly seeks funding opportunities and initiate new projects when new funding opportunities arise.
An important venue for knowledge sharing is the traditional TBVI Annual Symposium in Les Diablerets, Switzerland. Since 2005, TBVI has brought together TB scientists in the Swiss mountain resort of Les Diablerets, located upwards from the lake of Geneva. Over the years, this somewhat secluded location has facilitated a ‘TB group’ spirit that has led to many new ideas, projects and collaborations.
On January 29-30, 2025, the TBVI symposium took place in Les Diablerets, Switzerland, attracting over 120 researchers, developers, funders, and policymakers focused on tuberculosis (TB) vaccine research. Attendees included representatives from more than 60 research institutes, universities, and funding agencies across 20 countries. The event also featured two European research consortia, ITHEMYC and TBVACHORIZON, which coincided with the symposium to foster collaboration and knowledge exchange in the fight against tuberculosis. The symposium featured presentations on the challenges of designing TB vaccines, updates from vaccine developers about their ongoing candidates, and a session dedicated to community engagement. Additionally, there were lively debates aimed at challenging the audience’s perspectives on preclinical development and clinical trial strategies. These discussions aligned with the upcoming update of the TB Vaccine Development Pathway—a freely accessible web tool designed to guide professionals from discovery to implementation.
If you’re curious to see more, you can watch the animation (click here) and explore the web tool www.tbvacpathway.org.
Moreover, two talented scientists, Beatrice Francis and Andrew Simonson, received the TBVI Award. This award serves as a platform that allows emerging talent to showcase their work and engage with others in the field. TBVI is committed to creating opportunities for everyone involved in the fight against TB, whether they are emerging scientists or mothers participating in clinical trials with their infants. The Institut Pasteur of Madagascar presented a video (click here) showcasing the involvement of a mother and her baby in a TB vaccine clinical trial in Madagascar. TBVI thanks all participants for attending and contributing to the success of this symposium. We look forward to continuing our activities and initiating new initiatives together with the field.
TBVI was proud to present both Beatrice Nassanga and Andrew Simonson with the TBVI Award 2025. Follow here to read more.
On January 30-31, 2024, the TBVI Symposium was held in Les Diablerets, Switzerland. This year, the symposium brought together over 120 tuberculosis (TB) vaccine researchers, developers, funders and policymakers that are all part of TBVI’s network of over 60 research institutes, universities, industrial partners and funding agencies from 20 countries. To encourage synergy and knowledge exchange, two large European consortia that are coordinated by TBVI (ITHEMYC and TBVACHORIZON) held their annual meetings in the same week and joined the symposium as well.
The symposium offered a great chance to share the latest insights from leading scientists and stakeholders within and outside the TB field. It provided an opportunity to exchange new ideas on how to advance innovation in the field, to increase synergy, and to diversify and progress the TB vaccine pipeline.
Besides presentations about fundamental and applied research and novel technologies to innovate the TB vaccine pipeline, vaccine developers gave updates on their vaccine candidates. Furthermore, a debate was held to challenge the audience’s views on clinical trial design, and funders presented their current and future activities.
Three talented young scientists: Mphatso Phiri, Andy Tran and Paul Ogongo were awarded the TBVI-Talent Award. The Award is meant to encourage these young scientists’ progress in their careers and let them engage with others in the field. All three presented their work and had the opportunity to discuss their ideas with researchers, developers, funders, and policy makers. As a reward and keepsake, each awardee received a unique painting from the artist Paulina Siniatkina, a TB survivor who is dedicated to fighting stigma about TB victims. Paulina addressed the audience during the event via an impressive video message. Please follow the link to see her message: Video message Paulina Siniatkina (for more information about her work, please visit her website: Artist Paulina Siniatkina )
Finally, TBVI announced the launch of the Preclinical Pipeline developed by Stop TB Partnership WGNV. WGNV is the partnership’s Working Group on New TB Vaccines that helps to facilitate the development of new, more effective TB vaccines and tracks these in an interactive pipeline of preclinical and clinical candidates. This pipeline includes candidates from published proof-of-concept in animal models through to preparation for Phase 1 studies that have been submitted by the developers. The list of preclinical candidates by research stage can be accessed here, the sortable/filterable view here. If you have other candidates that are being developed, please submit the Preclinical Candidate Submission Form. If you know of yet other candidates, please share this message with the developers and encourage them to submit their candidate for inclusion in the Preclinical pipeline via the same form.
TBVI thanks all participants for attending and contributing to the great success of this symposium. We look forward to continuing our activities and starting new initiatives together with the field.
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